Saudi crude exports touch 7.7m bpd in June

Saudi Arabia's crude oil exports rose to at least 7.7 million barrels per day (bpd) when output hit record highs in June, an industry source said Tuesday. A senior Opec Gulf delegate told Reuters last week the kingdom pumped more than 9.8 million bpd and boosted exports in June, although he did not give export levels. The industry source said he estimated Saudi oil exports were between 7.7 and 7.9 million bpd in June. The rest of Saudi crude output goes into its own stocks, refineries and power stations. A second industry source said that Saudi crude sales were around 7.5 million bpd in June, including around 1 million bpd in sales to Saudi Aramco's joint-venture refineries inside the kingdom and around 4 million bpd sold to China. Article continues below Exports to North America amounted to around 800,000 bpd in June, while sales to European buyers were around 700,000 bpd, he said. According to official data published by the Joint Data Initiative (JODI) this week, Saudi Arabia exported 6.83 million bpd of the nearly the nearly 9 million bpd of crude it produced in May. Saudi crude oil stocks stood at 66.55 million barrels at the end of May, almost double the May 2010 level, after an average of 350,000 bpd of crude were pumped into storage in May this year, JODI data showed. The large Rabigh refinery, which can consume up to 400,000 bpd of oil, was shut for maintenance in May. The second industry source said he expected Saudi crude production in July to fall below that of June to around 9.4-9.5 million bpd. But he said output in August could be higher t because of strong demand.