Saudi Arabia’s December oil exports fall 16%; total shipments down 9.7%

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Saudi Arabia’s oil exports in December declined by 15.8% year on year to riyal (SR) 72.0bn ($19.2bn) amid output cuts, with its share to total overseas shipments slipping by 5.3 percentage points to 73.1%, official data showed on Wednesday.

Overall exports for the last month of 2023 declined by 9.7% year on year to SR98.5bn, according to the Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Statistics.

The country, which is the biggest crude exporter in the world and the de facto leader of oil cartel OPEC, has extended its voluntary oil production cut of 1m bbl/day by another three months to March 2024 amid the global economic slowdown.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s non-oil exports (including re-exports) in December 2023 grew by 12.0% year on year to SR26.5bn, with shipments of products of chemical and allied industries posting a 5.5% increase, while those categorized under “plastics, rubber and articles thereof” fell by 7.6%.

These two categories accounted for a combined 53.7% of Saudi Arabia’s total non-oil merchandise exports in December.

China was Saudi Arabia’s biggest trading partner in December, with about a 15% share to total exports, followed by Japan and India, with shares of 11.0% and 8.8%. respectively.

Total merchandise imports for the month declined by 7.1% year on year to SR60.4bn.

($1 = SR3.75)