Saudi Arabia's crude Oil Export Rose to 7.111 M bpd in September

Saudi Arabia's crude oil export in September went up to 7.111 million barrels per day from August's 6.998 million bpd.

Business Insider writes that the Joint Organizations Data Initiative Oil (JODI-OIL) reported the increase Wednesday. The country is not slowing down its oil production, even as oil prices decline. One barrel of Brent crude oil is $44. A year and a half ago, the price was $110 per barrel.  

According to Yahoo, the JODI report came from Riyadh and members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The reports are then published in JODI's website.  

Meanwhile, according to Reuters, Saudi Arabia uses higher crude volume to power air conditioning systems during summer months, when it is extremely hot. It has also been using more crude to local refineries to ramp up its oil product exports.

Domestic refineries produce 2.501 million barrels of crude per day; this is higher than the 2.214 million bpd in August. Meanwhile, exports of refined oil products went down to 1.190 million bpd in September, from August's 1.347 million bpd. JODI data also shows that the crude oil burnt to generate power dropped to 744,000 bpd in August. This is due to the cooler weather as the kingdom leaves the summer season.

However, there are fears that Saudi Arabia's strategy may lead to problems in the future. Hedge fund founder Stephen Jen said he is concerned about Saudi's capacity to bring balance between the production of oil and its low price. There are participants who believe the country is headed to a fiscal crisis in the next three to five years.

"For Russia, in the short term the most efficient way (to adjust) was to devalue the rouble. Go to Saudi Arabia, same shock but with a pegged currency, it can't devalue," said Jen.

According to the International Monetary Fund, Saudi is one of the countries that have an estimated five year fiscal buffer to prepare for the possibility that oil prices will stay low.