Saudi Arabia To Cut Its Oil Exports By 10% Following Price Slide

Sauid Arabia announced on Wednesday it would cut its oil exports by 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) in January and would do a further cut of 100,000 bpd in February.

The OPEC kingpin is taking this step to shore up tumbling oil prices in hope of lifting oil to $80 a barrel.

We are serious about restoring balance to the market,” said Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih told a press conference in Riyadh.

“We are concerned about volatility in the oil market,” he said. “We have seen peaks and drops in prices (that are) completely unjustified by the fundamentals.”

Prices of oil dived by more than 30% between October and December due to oversupply.

Saudi oil remains among the cheapest in the world to extract, at only US$4 a barrel, according to Falih.

But the kingdom has posted budget shortfalls each year since a major 2014 crash in crude prices, and has turned to borrowing as well as pursuing economic reforms.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, is the third biggest crude producer after the United States and Russia.