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Saudi Crude Oil Exports Rise to Two-Year Peak in April

Saudi Arabia’s April crude exports rose to a two-year peak of 7.382 million barrels per day (bpd) in April from 7.235 million bpd in March. (Reuters)
Saudi Arabia’s April crude exports rose to a two-year peak of 7.382 million barrels per day (bpd) in April from 7.235 million bpd in March. (Reuters)
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Saudi Crude Oil Exports Rise to Two-Year Peak in April

Saudi Arabia’s April crude exports rose to a two-year peak of 7.382 million barrels per day (bpd) in April from 7.235 million bpd in March. (Reuters)
Saudi Arabia’s April crude exports rose to a two-year peak of 7.382 million barrels per day (bpd) in April from 7.235 million bpd in March. (Reuters)

Saudi Arabia’s April crude exports rose to a two-year peak of 7.382 million barrels per day (bpd) in April from 7.235 million bpd in March, data from the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI) showed on Monday.

The Kingdom’s crude oil output also increased to 10.441 million barrels per day in April, up from 10.3 million bpd in March.

Saudi Arabia is on track to lift oil production capacity by more than one million bpd to over 13 million barrels bpd by the end of 2026 or early 2027, the energy minister said last month.

The country’s domestic crude refinery throughput fell 0.235 million bpd to 2.538 million bpd in April while direct crude burn rose 62,000 bpd to 397,000 bpd.

Oil product exports eased 0.015 million bpd to 1.473 million bpd in April, while demand for oil products rose 0.177 million bpd to 2.234 million bpd in April, the data showed.

The data also highlighted that global oil demand fell month-on-month in April to below pre-pandemic levels as consumption softened across several Asian countries.

Monthly export figures are provided by Riyadh and other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to JODI, which publishes them on its website.

Meanwhile, China's crude oil imports from Russia soared 55% from a year earlier to a record level in May, displacing Saudi Arabia as the top supplier, as refiners cashed in on discounted supplies amid sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

Imports of Russian oil, including supplies pumped via the East Siberia Pacific Ocean pipeline and seaborne shipments from Russia's European and Far Eastern ports, totaled nearly 8.42 million tons, according to data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs.

That's equivalent to roughly 1.98 million bpd and up a quarter from 1.59 million bpd in April.

The data, which shows that Russia took back the top ranking of suppliers to the world's biggest crude oil importer after a gap of 19 months, indicates that Moscow is able to find buyers for its oil despite western sanctions, though it has had to slash prices.

While China’s overall crude oil demand has been dampened by COVID-19 curbs and a slowing economy, leading importers, including refining giant Sinopec, have stepped up buying cheaper Russian oil on top of sanctioned supplies from Iran and Venezuela.

Customs data released on Monday also showed China imported 260,000 tons of Iranian crude oil last month, its third shipment of Iran oil since last December.

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Trump Exempts Mexico Goods from Tariffs for a Month, but Doesn’t Mention Canada

Construction workers are seen on the site of a new development in Long Beach, California, March 5, 2025. (AFP)
Construction workers are seen on the site of a new development in Long Beach, California, March 5, 2025. (AFP)
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Trump Exempts Mexico Goods from Tariffs for a Month, but Doesn’t Mention Canada

Construction workers are seen on the site of a new development in Long Beach, California, March 5, 2025. (AFP)
Construction workers are seen on the site of a new development in Long Beach, California, March 5, 2025. (AFP)

US President Donald Trump on Thursday said Mexico won't be required to pay tariffs on any goods that fall under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade until April 2, but made no mention of a reprieve for Canada despite his Commerce secretary saying a comparable exemption was likely.

"After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "This Agreement is until April 2nd."

Earlier on Thursday, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the one-month reprieve on hefty tariffs on goods imported from Mexico and Canada that has been granted to automotive products is likely to be extended to all products that comply with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade.

Lutnick told CNBC he expected Trump to announce that extension on Thursday, a day after exempting automotive goods from the 25% tariffs he slapped on imports from Canada and Mexico earlier in the week.

Trump "is going to decide this today," Lutnick said, adding "it's likely that it will cover all USMCA-compliant goods and services."

"So if you think about it this way, if you lived under Donald Trump's US-Mexico-Canada agreement, you will get a reprieve from these tariffs now. If you chose to go outside of that, you did so at your own risk, and today is when that reckoning comes," he said.

Nonetheless, Trump's social media post made no mention of a reprieve for Canada, the other party to the USMCA deal that Trump negotiated during his first term as president.

Lutnick said his "off the cuff" estimate was that more than 50% of the goods imported from the two US neighbors - also its largest two trading partners - were compliant with the USMCA deal that Trump negotiated during his first term as president.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Lutnick's comments "promising" in remarks to reporters in Canada.

"That aligns with some of the conversations that we have been having with administration officials, but I'm going to wait for an official agreement to talk about Canadian response and look at the details of it," Trudeau said. "But it is a promising sign. But I will highlight that it means that the tariffs remain in place, and therefore our response will remain in place."

Lutnick emphasized that the reprieve would only last until April 2, when he said the administration plans to move ahead with reciprocal tariffs under which the US will impose levies that match those imposed by trading partners.

In the meantime, he said, the current hiatus is about getting fentanyl deaths down, which is the initial justification Trump used for the tariffs on Mexico and Canada and levies on Chinese goods that have now risen to 20%.

"On April 2, we're going to move with the reciprocal tariffs, and hopefully Mexico and Canada will have done a good enough job on fentanyl that this part of the conversation will be off the table, and we'll move just to the reciprocal tariff conversation," Lutnick said. "But if they haven't, this will stay on."

Indeed, Trudeau is expecting the US and Canada to remain in a trade war.

"I can confirm that we will continue to be in a trade war that was launched by the United States for the foreseeable future," he told reporters in Ottawa.