OPEC oil Saudi Arabia pumped a daily average of 10.63 million barrels of crude in August, a 400,000 bpd decline on peak production in July, prompted by seasonally high demand. Exports in August were also lower, at 7.31 million barrels, down 310,000 barrels from July, according to information supplied by Riyadh to the Joint Organizations Data Initiative. Oil inventories in the kingdom fell to 281 million barrels in August, a 460,000-barrel drop from July. Refineries in Saudi Arabia processed 2.6 million bpd in the reported month, down from 2.61 million bpd in July. The data may indicate that Saudi Arabia is indeed serious about its plans to reduce its oil production in a bid to rebalance markets. These plans reflect Riyadh’s realization that the price war it started two years ago with America’s shale boomers has not done it much good. In fact, low oil prices have demonstrated that […]