Saudi crude exports scale seven-month peak in November 2020

(Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's crude oil exports rose for a fifth consecutive month to a seven-month peak of 6.35 million barrels per day (bpd) in November 2020, official data showed on Wednesday.

In October, the kingdom exported 6.16 million bpd of crude oil.

Saudi crude exports https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/xlbpgylmkpq/Saudi%20crude%20exports.PNG

The world's largest oil exporter's total crude and oil products exports rose month-on-month by 46,000 bpd to 7.42 million bpd, the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI) said on its website.

Saudi domestic crude refinery throughput fell by 2.6% to 2.34 million bpd in November, while direct crude burn dropped by 71,000 bpd to 320,000 bpd.

The kingdom's crude output was little changed at 8.97 million bpd in November, the official figures showed.

Saudi Arabia, along with other OPEC+ (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies) producers have been curbing output to support oil prices since January 2017.

The kingdom early this month pledged additional voluntary production cuts in the next two months.

Most members of OPEC+ have agreed to hold production steady in February as a spike in coronavirus cases depresses fuel demand.

Monthly export figures are provided by Riyadh and other OPEC members to JODI, which publishes them on its website.

(Reporting by Eileen Soreng, Arpan Varghese, Shreyansi Singh in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by K. Sathya Narayanan; Editing by Louise Heavens, David Goodman and Barbara Lewis)