Saudi Arabia shipped 10 percent less oil overseas in October than it did a year earlier, signaling demand was falling even before OPEC decided a month later to hold production unchanged with prices plunging. Oil exports fell to 6.9 million barrels a day in October from 7.7 million barrels a day a year earlier, according to data from the Joint Organisations Data Initiative yesterday. It was the sixth month in a row that Saudi Arabia exported less than 7 million barrels a day, the level it needs to balance its budget. Crude slumped 44 percent this year as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries sought to defend market share amid a U.S. shale boom that’s exacerbating a global glut. Saudi Arabia will stick to its policy to maintain output, the country’s oil minister Ali Al-Naimi said, according to state-run Saudi Press Agency. Saudi Arabia and OPEC can’t lose its […]