Trump pressures Saudi Arabia to raise oil exports

Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi Arabia has boosted oil exports to the US in response to pressure from US President Donald Trump in a bid to cool down the energy market.

The GCC nation started increasing oil exports earlier in 2018, but they have been accelerated over the past three months after Trump’s call to Saudis, through private diplomacy and his public tweets, to increase production in order to keep energy prices under control.

Last week, Saudi oil shipments into the US reached 1 million barrels per day (bpd), hitting the highest since 2017, according to government data.

“The Middle East producers are becoming much more aggressive, wanting to bring their barrels back into this market,” Gary Heminger, the chief executive of Marathon Petroleum Corporation, commented on the sidelines of an investor conference, which took place earlier this week.

In late October, the US imports of Saudi crude hit a low of 506,000 bpd, compared with last week’s four-week average surge to 1,009,000 bpd, Bloomberg reported, citing Saudi government data.

In 2017, the fall of Saudi petroleum exports took place on the back of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’(OPEC) decision to fight a global glut that weighed on oil prices.

Mubasher Contribution Time: 09-Sep-2018 09:33 (GMT)
Mubasher Last Update Time: 09-Sep-2018 09:45 (GMT)