Crude supplies from OPEC’s Middle East exporters, excluding Iran, soared in April to their highest level since at least January 2017. The surge came as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates abandoned restraint and boosted production after OPEC and its allies failed to agree on deepening output cuts in early March. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait and the U.A.E., which together account for about 70% of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ entire production, together shipped an average of 18.9 million barrels a day of crude and condensate last month, tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. That was an increase of 2 million barrels a day from revised March levels.
Saudi shipments in April rose by 1.95 million barrels a day, or 26%, from their March level, averaging 9.36 million. That was the most the kingdom has ever exported on a monthly average basis and was prompted by the collapse of the OPEC+ alliance, which failed to secure Russia’s participation in deeper curbs. Flows from the country’s Yanbu terminal on its Red Sea coast rose by about 36% to 1.53 million barrels a day, with shipments continuing to go into storage tanks on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast.
Exports from the U.A.E. also rose in April, as the country followed Saudi Arabia in boosting production. Shipments exceeded 3.5 million barrels a day of crude and condensate, an increase of 250,000 barrels a day, or 8%, from March.
The region’s other two producers were not able to boost exports. Iraq’s shipments fell month on month by 170,000 barrels a day, to their lowest level in three months, as crude sales to India plunged. Exports fell from both the country’s southern Basra Oil Terminal and the northern export route through Ceyhan in Turkey.
Flows from Kuwait also edged lower month-on-month, dropping by 28,000 barrels a day, or 1%, from the daily average level seen in March. A jump in sales to China, which were up by 146,000 barrels a day, was more than offset by lower shipments to India, Japan and South Korea.