Crude oil production in Saudi Arabia rose by 12.2% in September from a month earlier, to reach 8 million barrels per day (bpd), data by Al Rajhi Capital Research cited by TradeArabia showed on Monday.
Following the very low levels of crude oil output in the spring and early summer, when all Gulf producers slashed output due to inability to ship crude cargoes via the Strait of Hormuz, production has started to recover as Saudi Arabia boosted ship-to-ship (STS) transfers outside the Strait and redirected most exports through its Red Sea port of Yanbu.
Despite the temporary two-week halt of the East-West oil pipeline and loadings at Yanbu in September due to the September 10 attacks on the pipeline, production rose as the Kingdom pivoted to shuttle-shipping crude through Hormuz by transferring cargoes that had transited Hormuz onto other vessels in the Gulf of Oman.
At the end of September, Brent Crude prices settled at $103.5 per barrel, which, alongside increased crude oil production, raised Saudi revenues from oil.
The higher oil income comes as non-oil indicators also pointed to improvement, according to Al Rajhi Capital Research.
Consumer spending rose by 6.4% in August from a year earlier, while the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) registered in September its strongest reading since February, just before the Middle East conflict started and upended all oil production and economic forecasts in the region.
But the Saudi economic picture remains mixed. For example, Saudi Arabia’s merchandise exports fell by 11.5% in August 2026 compared to August 2025, with oil exports down by 12.5%, Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Statistics said.
In the second quarter of 2026, at the peak of the Hormuz crisis when tankers were barely moving out of the Strait, Saudi Arabia’s real gross domestic product (GDP) slumped by 4.7% year-over-year, due to a 24.8% plunge in oil activities, while government activities and non-oil activities both rose by 0.9%. On a seasonally adjusted basis, real GDP declined by 4.8% compared to Q1, with oil activities down 21.6%, per data from the statistics authority.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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