After Saudi Aramco attacks, Saudi Arabia regains oil production soon and Moody's expects low economic growth

RIYADH - Saudi Arabia has recovered about 75 percent of its crude oil production losses due to attacks on two of its oil facilities and will return to full volumes by early next week, a source said.

The source said that the production of Saudi oil from Khurais now exceeds 1.3 million barrels per day, while the current production from Abqaiq at about three million barrels per day.

Attacks on Khurais and Abqaiq, two of the kingdom's biggest oil facilities, have halted 5.7 million barrels per day (bpd), or more than half of the kingdom's oil production.

Saudi officials say production will return to full capacity at the end of September.

In morning trading, oil prices rose more than 1% due to doubts about how quickly Saudi Arabia will resume full crude supplies, and continuing tensions in the Middle East.

Brent crude futures rose to $ 65.5 a barrel, and the nearest maturity contract was $ 65.04, up 1.18% by 06:45 UTC.

WTI crude also hit $ 58.73 a barrel, up 1.1% from $ 59.39 earlier. Oil prices rose last week by 6.7%.

Despite efforts by Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, to reassure world markets that they can resume full production by the end of the month, customers and traders remain skeptical.

State-owned Saudi Aramco changed some shipments to other ore and delayed deliveries of crude and refined products to customers for several days after the attack.

Tensions escalated in the Middle East after the attack, and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif did not rule out war in the Gulf after the United States sent more troops and military equipment to Saudi Arabia.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday the troops to be sent to the Gulf were "to deter and defend," adding that the United States was seeking to avoid war with Iran.

Slower growth
Meanwhile, Moody's analyst Alexander Bergesi said the agency had cut its forecast for Saudi economic growth in 2019 to 0.3% from 1.5% in its previous estimate, as it expected oil production from the kingdom to decline by the end of the year.

In addition to the disruption caused by the attack on two Saudi oil facilities earlier this month, "Saudi Arabia will continue to comply with excessive OPEC quota," Bergese said.