Saudi oil revenues down 40% in five months

Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi oil revenues plunged by SAR 133.97 billion or 40.38% on a yearly basis during the first five months of 2020, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the global economy and the oil demand.

The decline came also amid a collapse in prices due to tensions between OPEC and its partners regarding output cuts before a reduction agreement was reached.

The kingdom's oil revenues dropped to SAR 197.82 billion over the period from January to May this year, compared to SAR 331.79 billion in the same period in 2019, impacted by declines in May and April by 66.1% and 65.4%, respectively, according to official data collected by Mubasher.

In March, oil prices incurred more than 60% losses, falling to an 18-year low due to a decrease in the global demand as economic activities shut down because of COVID-19, coupled with the price war between Russia and OPEC.

Exporting 1.3 billion crude barrels

Saudi oil exports (crude and products) levelled up by 0.4% year-on-year (YoY) by the end of May 2020, or 12.29 million barrels, to record 1.3 billion barrels.

This growth was primarily boosted by the historic rise in exported quantities during April 2020 by 32.26% YoY or 82.95 million barrels when compared to April 2019.The quantities totalled 340.05 million barrels or 11.335 million barrels per day (b/d), compared with 257.1 million barrels (8.57 million b/d).

Average Saudi oil exports rose to 8.574 million b/d in the first five-month period of 2020 from 8.539 million barrels b/d in the same period a year ago.

Non-oil exports down 23.1%

Saudi non-oil merchandise exports witnessed a 23.15% annual contraction in the first five months of 2020, reaching SAR 73.64 billion when compared to SAR 95.83 billion. May contributed the least to the figure with just SAR 12.64 billion.

Merchandise exports total SAR 271.5 billion

Overall, the kingdom’s oil and non-oil merchandise exports showed a 36.5% annual slump in the period ended in May 2020, standing at SAR 271.46 billion, compared to SAR 427.63 billion.

Year-to-date (YTD), Saudi trade surplus totalled SAR 74.74 billion, a decrease of 62% or SAR 121.55 billion compared to SAR 196.29 billion in the corresponding period in 2019.