Despite the lowest production and export volumes on record, Saudi Arabia saw the value of its oil exports surge by 37.4% in March to the highest level in three and a half years, data from Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Statistics showed.
The value of the Kingdom’s total merchandise exports rose by 21.5% in March 2026 from a year earlier, with oil exports surging by 37.4% as the soaring oil prices and the re-routing of crude exports to the Red Sea port Yanbu helped the world’s top crude exporter offset most of the traffic disruption and chaos at the Strait of Hormuz.
The share of oil exports out of all Saudi exports jumped from 71.0% in March 2025 to 80.3% in March 2026, the trade statistics data showed, as international oil prices hit $100 and above for the first time since 2022 in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The value of the Saudi oil exports in March, at an estimated $24.7 billion, jumped to the highest level since October 2022, according to Bloomberg’s estimates.
Goldman Sachs said in April that Saudi Arabia’s weekly oil revenues have increased by 10% since the war began as it was able to re-route most of its shipments to the ports on the Red Sea, thus bypassing the blocked Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi oil giant Aramco said in its first-quarter earnings earlier this month that capacity on the East-West pipeline to the Yanbu port reached its maximum of 7 million bpd.
“Our East-West Pipeline, which reached its maximum capacity of 7.0 million barrels of oil per day, has proven itself to be a critical supply artery, helping to mitigate the impact of a global energy shock and providing relief to customers affected by shipping constraints in the Strait of Hormuz,” Aramco’s president and CEO Amin Nasser said.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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