The widely reported fall in Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports in May — the first time in five months — led many to assume that this may counter the fall in crude oil prices. This is not the case. To start with, the fall in Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports was reported by Saudi Arabia itself to the Joint Oil Data Initiative (JODI), a global organisation that includes Opec, IEA and many other energy organisations and individual nations. The fall in crude exports hides the rise in domestic refining and product exports in addition to the seasonal rise in direct crude oil burn for power generation. While Saudi Arabia’s production in May stood at 10.333 million barrels a day (mbd) slightly higher than April’s, its exports were 6.935 mbd, down from 7.737 mbd a month earlier, domestic refineries ran 2.4 mbd, up from 2.2 mbd in April and 20 […]