London — Saudi Arabia will report August crude oil production of 10.424 million b/d, an OPEC source told S&P Global Platts on Friday.
The figure represents a 136,000 b/d increase from July, when Saudi Arabia, OPEC's largest producer and the world's largest crude exporter, self-reported production of 10.288 million b/d.
The kingdom supplied to market 10.467 million b/d in August, the source added on condition of anonymity. That means the sum of crude exported to customers, consumed by Saudi refineries and burned by domestic power plants, slightly exceeded the amount of crude that was pumped out of the ground in the month, indicating a draw of barrels held in storage.
The August figures reflect Saudi customer demand, the source said.
July production had been down partly because of a July 25 attack on two VLCCs in the Red Sea owned by state oil company Saudi Aramco, the source said. The attack prompted the company to suspend shipments through the Bab al-Mandab strait until August 4.
OPEC on June 23 agreed with 10 non-OPEC partners to end overcompliance with their production cuts and boost output by a collective 1 million b/d to replace barrels expected to be shut in by the reimplementation of US sanctions on Iran and Venezuela's economic freefall.
Saudi Arabia's quota under the deal was 10.06 million b/d.
The market has been closely watching Saudi production, as it holds the bulk of global spare capacity and has indicated its willingness to serve as the world's primary swing producer.
OPEC is set to reveal its August production figures in its monthly oil market report September 12.
A six-country OPEC/non-OPEC monitoring committee overseeing the supply accord is set to meet September 23 in Algiers to review market conditions and decide on next steps. The committee is chaired by Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih.
