Baku – APA. Saudi Arabia has been steadily drawing down its record-high oil stockpiles this year as the kingdom wrestles with soaring domestic demand while trying to maintain exports, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The world’s top exporter of crude oil drew its storage levels down in May to the lowest level since August 2014, according to the Joint Organizations Data Initiative, a group based in Riyadh that compiles oil industry information. The country’s crude inventories fell 12% since October to 289 million barrels in the longest sustained drawdown in 15 years.
The moves suggest Saudi Arabia is performing a delicate balancing act at a sensitive time for the oil market, said analysts of the kingdom’s oil industry.
It doesn’t want to ramp up production past its record, more than 10.5 million barrels a day set in June 2015, to meet peak local demand during the scorching summer. Such an increase might signal to investors that there is no end in sight for a global glut of crude that helped sink oil prices to 13-year lows during the winter.
Saudi Arabia’s production has remained steady since August 2015, hovering between 10.14 million barrels a day and 10.28 million after a significant ramping up in early 2015.
But Saudi Arabia also has to keep output flowing as it competes for its share of the export market with a host of rivals. They include an Iran now resurgent after the end to sanctions, a Russia pumping near record levels and a U.S. that began selling crude abroad for the first time in 40 years.
According to JODI data, Saudi Arabia exported almost 7.3 million barrels of crude oil a day in May, up more than 5% from May 2015.
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