Saudi Arabia to cut November oil supplies by 560,000 bpd

Saudi Arabia has cut November crude oil allocations by 560,000 barrels per day (bpd), as part of its compliance with OPEC’s output cut deal, news agencies reported on Monday, citing a statement from the Kingdom’s energy ministry.

The cut in allocations constitutes a full 290,000 bpd reduction over and above the 486,000 bpd that Saudi Arabia pledged to cut as part of its commitment to the global output accord.

This adds up to a total of almost 800,000 bpd in cuts, the government said.

“Despite very strong demand from international waterborne customers at more than 7.711 million bpd, they were allocated only 7.150 million bpd,” a ministry spokesperson said in the statement.

“The Kingdom expects all other participants in the (agreement) to follow suit and to maintain the high levels of overall conformity achieved in August going forward,” the spokesperson added.

Saudi Arabia has agreed with fellow OPEC and non-member oil producers to cut crude output by a combined 1.8 million bpd until March 2018.

A lack of compliance from OPEC members like Nigeria and Libya, where oil production has been hit by militant activity, has stepped up pressure on Riyadh to deepen its own production cuts.

The Kingdom curbed crude exports in September to below 6.7 million bpd, despite high customer demand and the partial reduction of domestic summer crude burning requirements, the ministry said.

Exports were also capped at 6.6 million bpd in August.