Saudi crude exports up in January to 7.47 million barrels per day

Crude oil exports from Saudi Arabia rose in January to their highest level since April last year, while volumes used by domestic refineries remained high, official data showed.

Ali al-Naimi, Saudi Oil Minister said oil demand was growing and expected oil prices, which hit a near six-year low in January, to stabilise.

Oil markets monitor any changes in output and exports from Saudi Arabia, which has enough spare capacity to significantly alter production according to demand.

The top oil exporter shipped 7.474 million barrels per day of crude oil in January this year, up from 6.934 million in December. Production was steady in January at 9.680 million bpd from 9.630 million bpd in December, the data showed.

Crude supplies from the kingdom, for both exports and the domestic market, were 9.75 million bpd in January, 14,000 bpd higher than the month before. Oil products exports fell to 798,000 bpd in January after a record high of 1.050 million bpd in December.

Domestic refiners processed 2.104 million bpd of crude in January, slightly lower from 2.217 million bpd in December.