MONGABAY.COM
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
|
|
Saudi Arabia
Index
During the 1980s, crude oil production fell from a peak of
9.9 million bpd in 1980, as Saudi Arabia boosted output to offset
shortfalls in supply resulting from the beginning of the IranIraq War, to 3.3 million bpd in 1985. Thereafter, and until the
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, a combination of moves by the kingdom
and developments in international oil markets allowed for a
steady increase in supply. Production rose to 4.9 million bpd in
1986 and reached in excess of 5.8 million bpd on the eve of the
Iraqi invasion. To replace most of the 4.5 million bpd of
embargoed Kuwaiti and Iraqi oil, Saudi Arabia raised output to
8.5 million bpd within three months. After the Persian Gulf War,
market conditions and maintenance projects required modest
declines in output to below 8 million bpd, but the kingdom's
output in 1991 and 1992 averaged 8.4 million bpd. Divided Zone
output, which was included in this figure, fell to zero
immediately after the Persian Gulf War as a result of the war
damage, but the Arabian Oil Company facilities resumed pumping at
levels close to 350,000 bpd within a few months. Half of this
output was attributed to Saudi Arabia. Getty Oil facilities in
the Divided Zone did not resume pumping oil after the Persian
Gulf War.
The bulk of Saudi Arabia's crude oil production was exported.
In 1980, for example, crude oil exports totaled about 9.2 million
bpd or 93 percent of production. By 1985, with lower production,
exports fell to below 2.2 million bpd (see
table 7, Appendix).
Over the latter half of the 1980s, exports have risen steadily to
average 3.3 million bpd in 1989, 4.8 million bpd in 1990, and 6.8
million bpd in 1991 and 1992. Direction of exports has also
varied during the 1980s. In the early 1980s, the United States
and, to a lesser extent, Canada accounted for 15 percent of Saudi
exports; by 1985 they accounted for only 6 percent. Lower oil
prices and more aggressive pricing structures enabled Saudi
Arabia to place greater quantities of oil in North America by the
early 1990s when this market constituted almost one-third of
Saudi crude oil sales overseas (see
table 8, Appendix). By
contrast, Western Europe's importance to Saudi Arabia as an
importer of crude fell during the 1980s from 41 percent in 1981
to about 18 percent by 1990. Saudi Arabia has maintained its
market presence in Asia, although the high levels of dependence
of the mid-1980s have been reduced. Asia received 37 percent of
Saudi crude oil exports in 1981, expanded its share to 68 percent
by mid-decade, but with the kingdom's attempts to capture a
greater share of the United States market, Asia imported a
somewhat reduced 47 percent of Saudi crude oil exports by the
early 1990s.
Data as of December 1992
|
|