The Saudi Ministry of Energy directed Aramco to halt plans to increase its maximum sustainable capacity to 13 million barrels per day (Al Jazeera)
The Saudi GDP declined by 0.9% in 2023 compared to 2022, affected by a 9.2% decline in the oil sector, while non-oil activities achieved a growth of 4.6%, in addition to a growth in government activities by 2.1%, according to data from the Saudi General Authority for Statistics.
During the last quarter of 2023, the gross domestic product declined by 3.7% on an annual basis, affected by a decline in oil activities by 16.4%, while both non-oil activities and government activities achieved growth of 4.3% and 3.1%, respectively.
Compared to the third quarter of 2023, the GDP grew in the last quarter by 0.4% as a result of non-oil activities increasing by 2.6%, and government activities growing by 1.1%, while oil activities declined by 2.7%.
Regarding oil production, Reuters quoted an oil sector source as saying that Saudi Arabia’s sudden announcement of reversing its plan to expand oil production capacity had been in preparation for at least 6 months, and was due to uncertainty about the market’s needs for additional surplus production capacity.
Yesterday, the Saudi Ministry of Energy directed Aramco to stop plans to increase its maximum sustainable capacity to 13 million barrels per day, and to return to the previous target of 12 million barrels per day.
The agency quoted an unnamed source as saying that Saudi Arabia currently has a surplus capacity of 3 million barrels per day, equivalent to 2.9% of the total daily global demand, according to Reuters calculations.
Source: Al Jazeera + Reuters