{"id":108927,"date":"2026-05-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/?p=108927"},"modified":"2026-05-14T03:37:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T03:37:31","slug":"saudis-april-crude-production-drops-to-lows-unseen-since-1990","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2026\/05\/14\/saudis-april-crude-production-drops-to-lows-unseen-since-1990\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi\u2019s April crude production drops to lows unseen since 1990"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Iran war disruptions took a big bite out of Saudi crude oil production in April<\/strong>, bringing it down to the lowest levels seen since the 1990 Gulf War.<\/p>\n

How bad is the hit?<\/strong> The Kingdom reported an output of a little over 6.3 mn bbl \/ d last month, according to <\/a> Opec\u2019s monthly report<\/a>. That\u2019s down by 651k bbl \/ d compared to March, and the lowest monthly output in 36 years, as per <\/a>Bloomberg<\/a> \u2019s tally. Production has now collapsed by roughly 4.6 mn bbl \/ d from February\u2019s 10.88 mn bbl \/ d.<\/p>\n

The gap between production and supply is doing the talking.<\/strong> April\u2019s supply-to-market came in at 6.88 mn bbl \/ d, meaning Riyadh drew down roughly 560k bbl \/ d from inventories to keep barrels flowing to customers even as wellheads were shut in.<\/p>\n

REMEMBER- <\/strong>Red Sea terminals can only handle lighter crude streams<\/a>, leaving the medium and heavy barrels stranded behind the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

The broader picture is just as severe<\/strong>. <\/strong>Total Opec crude production fell to 33.19 mn bbl \/ d in April, down 1.74 mn bbl \/ d m-o-m. Kuwait took the biggest proportional hit, shedding 561k bbl \/ d, while Iraq lost 291k bbl \/ d, and Iran 211k bbl \/ d. Only Libya, Nigeria, and Algeria (all outside the GCC) managed gains.<\/p>\n

\n

Opec and the IEA still can\u2019t see eye to eye<\/p>\n

Opec and the International Energy Association cannot agree on what this means for <\/strong>demand<\/strong>, exacerbating a trend of clashing narratives<\/a> about oil markets. Both released their May reports yesterday with starkly different takes on whether the shock is breaking the consumer side of the market.<\/p>\n

On one side, Opec trimmed its 2026 demand growth forecast to 1.2 mn bbl \/ d<\/strong>, down from 1.4 mn bbl \/ d in March. The oil cartel\u2019s framing is that the global economy is \u201cresilient\u201d at 3.1% growth, with Asian momentum, US fiscal support from the \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill Act,\u201d and AI-driven investment offsetting the energy shock. The group even sees 2027 demand growth accelerating to 1.5 mn bbl \/ d, a 0.2 mn bbl \/ d upward revision.<\/p>\n

The IEA is team demand destruction<\/strong>, seeing the world<\/a> losing 420k bbl \/ d of demand in 2026 \u2014 a 1.3 mn bbl \/ d swing from its pre-conflict trajectory. The second quarter alone is expected to see a 2.45 mn bbl \/ d contraction, with petrochemicals and aviation taking the heaviest blows. That\u2019s more than a 1.6 mn bbl \/ d headline gap on this year\u2019s demand growth between the two organizations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kingdom reported an output of a little over 6.3 mn bbl \/ d last month<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":108928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2557],"tags":[10,159],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-108927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oil-watch","tag-enterpriseam-ksa","tag-oil-watch","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"08571cce-3f48-444f-9cf3-866aedd8e11a","order":"5","is_powered_by":false,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/2026\/4\/597.jpg","photo_position":"above","homepage_title":"","full_issue_title":"Saudi\u2019s April crude production at its lowest level since 1990","related_issue":[108919],"teaser":"The Kingdom reported an output of a little over 6.3 mn bbl \/ d last month"},"yoast_head":"\nSaudi\u2019s April crude production drops to lows unseen since 1990 - 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