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Simon Watkins

Simon Watkins

Simon Watkins is a former senior FX trader and salesman, financial journalist, and best-selling author. He was Head of Forex Institutional Sales and Trading for…

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How Much Oil Can Saudi Arabia Really Produce?

Saudi Arabia

For decades, the true numbers relating to Saudi Arabia’s level of crude oil reserves and production have been a subject of much debate and confusion, not helped by the obfuscation from the Saudis over precisely what these numbers are. The reason for obfuscation is that Saudi Arabia’s only source of real power in the world begins and ends with its oil reserves and production, so the higher these numbers, the more the power, and the lower the number the less the power. In recent weeks this debate has become even more pronounced in the run-up to Saudi Arabia’s latest bond offering and in the debate oversupply and demand in the oil market over the remainder of this year and beyond. As detailed below, much of what Saudi Arabia has said about its oil reserves, current production, and likely future production is an exaggeration made for the purposes of self-aggrandizement but despite that, the numbers have increased somewhat compared to where they were 10 years ago.  To begin with the claimed crude oil reserves numbers: these have been a work of stunning bravado and almost complete fiction since 1990 when the Kingdom suddenly increased the official number from 170 billion barrels to 257 billion barrels, despite absolutely no new oil discoveries or improvements in recovery rates being made, as highlighted in my last book on the oil markets. Shortly thereafter, Saudi Arabia increased its official crude oil reserves numbers again, to 266.4 billion barrels, a level that persisted until a slight increase in 2017, to 268.5 billion barrels. Over the same period – in fact, from 1973 to last month - Saudi Arabia has pumped an average of 8.162 million barrels per day (bpd). Taking just the 30-year period from 1990 to 2020, this means that Saudi Arabia permanently removed 2,979,130,000 (around 2.98 billion) barrels of oil every year from its fields, a total over that 30-year period of: 89,373,900,000 (about 89.4 billion) barrels. Using the original number of crude oil reserves would have meant that Saudi Arabia’s reserves would now stand at around 81 billion barrels, placing it around eighth on the list of countries by crude oil reserves ranking. Instead, due to the exceptionally fortunate – and equally mystifying - unilateral hike in the reserves numbers by Saudi itself in 1990 (the numbers were not originated or corroborated by any independent source, mark you), Saudi Arabia has somehow been able simultaneously to remove 89.4 billion barrels of oil permanently from its fields whilst actually increasing its crude oil reserves numbers by over 87 billion barrels. Given, as mentioned, that during this time there were no new oil discoveries made – indeed, there was declining production over this period at many of Saudi Arabia’s core fields, including Ghawar - this is a mathematical impossibility. 

So to the actual oil crude oil production numbers: as highlighted above, the average amount of crude oil that Saudi Arabia was able to pump from 1973 to last month was 8.162 million bpd. That is it, there is no equivocation on that number, and no account is taken within that number of the unverifiable claims of any other ‘oil equivalents’ that Saudi likes to throw into any questioning of that number in order to further obfuscate the issue. If this – correct – number is used as the basis for discussion then all of Saudi Arabia’s subsequent activities make perfect sense. Most tellingly in this regard, the question often asked around the time of the first Saudi-instigated oil price war from 2014-2016 that was aimed at destroying the then-nascent U.S. shale oil threat to Saudi was: ‘Why didn’t the Saudis pump more oil to crash prices more?’ After all, the Saudi strategy was for it and all other OPEC members to pump as much crude oil as possible to push oil prices as low as possible to cause as many bankruptcies as possible in the U.S. shale oil sector. The fact of the matter is that the Saudis did pump everything it could at that point. It pumped its usual 8.1 and a bit million bpd, plus it pumped to the maximum on all of its other fields, plus it used its oil in storage but despite all of that it was not able to produce more than around 10 million barrels per day of oil at any point for more than a few months or so (basically until its storage ran out and it had to rely on genuine production from the wellheads). Given that what was at stake in the 2014-2016 oil price war was the long-term future of Saudi Arabia as a significant power in the Middle East and the world, if it could have pumped one drop of oil more over that period then it would have. 

Related: The Real Reason Big Oil Is Giving Up On Iraq

This leads to Saudi’s nonsensical claims about its spare capacity. These claims have been based on the foundation that its base crude oil production is around 10 million bpd rather than the 8.162 million bpd that is factually correct. It did indeed, as mentioned, produce just about 10 million bpd during its existentially important oil price war of 2014-2016 but that was going at absolutely full tilt and included storage volumes. The point here is that spare capacity is precisely that: basically, the extra amount that a country can produce in an emergency if and when required over and above the amount that can be produced with ease every day. The Energy Information Administration defines spare capacity specifically as production that can be brought online within 30 days and sustained for at least 90 days, whilst even Saudi Arabia has said that it would need at least 90 days to move rigs to drill new wells and raise production to the mythical 12 million bpd or 12.5 million bpd level. Abiding by this rule, Saudi Arabia’s genuine spare capacity up to at least the end of 2016 was at most about 2 million barrels per day using 8 million bpd as the base number, so equalling about 10 million bpd in total, which is precisely what it produced when it needed maximum production most (that is, during the 2014-2016 oil price war). The Saudis instead have been using the correct spare capacity of 2 million bpd but adding it to the false baseline production number of 10 million bpd for years, giving a number that it keeps mentioning of total capacity of 12-13 million bpd. Indeed, during its ill-fated 2020 oil price war the Saudi Ministry of Energy said it would increase its maximum sustained capacity to 13 million bpd. So fundamentally wrong is this Saudi number that it was forced to say so in the prospectus for its latest bond Saudi Aramco stated that it has not yet embarked on work to expand its maximum sustained capacity to this 13 million bpd level. 

In terms of where we are now, there has been a slight change in Saudi Arabia’s favor. For a start, the restarting of the Partitioned Neutral Zone (PNZ) will bring 500,000-600,000 bpd back onto the market to be shared equally by Saudi and Kuwait, meaning up to 300,000 bpd extra for Saudi Arabia, which is not taking into account recent expansions. “The average crude oil production from the start of 2012 - when the Saudis raised output to offset loss of Libya - to April 2020, we estimate at 10.0 million bpd, and for much of this period the PNZ was shut-in and for 2015 and 2016, the annual averages we have are 10.2 million bpd and 10.6 million bpd, which was a pretty sustained run,” Richard Bronze, an analyst at Energy Aspects, in London, exclusively told OilPrice.com last week. “It’s tricky to validate official production capacity figures from any country unless we see it produce at that level for an extended period, at least three months, and Saudi Arabia briefly surged production last April [2020], but I suspect this took it to a level that was not sustainable,” he said. “I estimate that Saudi Arabia can sustainably produce around 11.3 million bpd of crude, some way below the official figures of 12 million bpd or even 12.5 million bpd including the PNZ,” he added. “Saudi Arabia has announced several upstream projects that are scheduled to come online around the middle of the decade, but these are largely required to offset the natural declines at existing fields and if the Kingdom is serious about wanting to raise production capacity then this will require significant additional capital investments over several years,” he concluded.

By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com

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  • Mamdouh Salameh on June 23 2021 said:
    My considered opinion is that Saudi Arabia could at best produce 6.0-6.5 million barrels a day (mbd) allowing for a 2% annual depletion rate since 2010.

    So when Saudi Arabia says it is producing 10 mbd, only 6.0-6.5 mbd come from production and the remaining 3.5-4.0 mbd come from storage.

    Saudi Arabia’s crude oil production peaked at 9.65 mbd in 2005 according to Dr Majod Al Moneef the former Saudi Governor at OPEC and has been in decline since to 8.2 mbd by 2010 and to just above 6.0 mbd now.

    I have been meticulously and diligently studying Saudi Arabia’s proven oil reserves since 2005. My research and assessment indicate that Saudi proven reserves stood at 47 billion barrels (bb) at the end of 2020.

    Saudi reserves must stand at 45.36 bb now in June based on an average estimated production of 9.0 mbd including some 2.5-3.0 mbd of stored oil during January-June 2021 and allowing for Saudi share in OPEC+’s production cuts.

    90% of Saudi crude production comes from five giant oilfields Ghawar, Safaniya, Hanifa, Khurais and Zuluf all of which are more than 70 years old and are being kept producing by a huge injection of water with Ghawar accounting for 50% of the total.

    The Saudis have admitted in 2018 for the first time that Ghawar which is the cornerstone of Aramco’s oil production can only produce 3.8 mbd. If this is the case, then the persistent reports about depletion of reserves which have been circulating for years about Ghawar must be true. It is fair then to suggest that the same depletion would have also affected the other oilfields of the same age. In a nutshell, Ghawar could prove to be the Achilles heel of Saudi oil production.

    In 2008 Saudi Aramco reported that Ghawar produced 48% or 43.2 bb of its proven reserves. This meant that remaining reserves in 2008 were 46.8 bb. Between 2008 and May 12, 2019 Ghawar must have produced 22.35 bb leaving reserves of 24.45 bb.

    Dr Mamdouh G Salameh
    International Oil Economist
    Visiting Professor of Energy Economics at ESCP Europe Business School, London
  • Altaf Rahman on June 23 2021 said:
    Let us consider Mr. Salameh when he states - Saudi Arabia produces 6.0-6.5mbpd of oil and the remaining 3.5-4.0mbpd comes from the reserves.
    If 3.5-4.0mbpd comes out of reserves, that means a massive volume of 1.275-1.45 billion barrels of oil was taken out of reserves every year by Saudi.
    In order to take out oil from reserves, Saudis should have produced it in the first place. If so, when was it produced in the first place? Where it was stored secretly?
    Even if we assume Mr. Salameh referring to Saudi drawing oil from reserves for the past 8-10 years, they must have had 10 billion barrels of oil stored somewhere. Do they have such a massive storage facility? If they have, why latest technology has not identified such a site?
    If they have such a massive, secret storage facility, what Saudis did with the emptied storage facility after drawing out the 10 billion barrels of oil over the last 8-10 years?
    Are they keeping it idle? Have they demolished it?
    If Mr. Salameh thinks Saudi still keeps drawing 3.5-4.0 mbpd oil from stored reserves, the secret storage must be bigger then the assumed 10 billion barrels. How big depends on how long Mr. Salameh thinks Saudis will keep drawing from the stored reserves.
  • Robert Berke on June 24 2021 said:
    As the writer states, Saudi global influence is directly tied to the size of its reserves. If declines are as severe as claimed, is it any coicidence that the Saudi's lost the US and western support for its wars in Yemen and Syria, along with the sudden removal of US high tech weapons. Or is it surprising that the US is losing interest in the middle east? How does that play into the sudden emergence of changing relationship between the US and Russia, one of the only producer with increasing reserves, along with its enormous new Arctic discoveries.
  • J S on June 03 2022 said:
    The trouble I have with all such analyses that attempt to divine the true nature of Arabia's production ability & reserves is that none have ever adequately explained just how Arabia is so easily able to dramatically influence crude oil price as demonstrated time & time again. Indeed, Arabia has been able to do this even without the participation of other OPEC members. Those who ignore this historical fact seem doomed to fail in their predictions.

    It should be kept in mind that oil only began is price ascent in the 1970s after OPEC was formed, causing the first "energy crisis", plus the historically unique inception of the petrodollar exchange between the USA & Arabia to save the US from bankruptcy due to enormous Vietnam war debt. Recall that the petrodollar exchange is the still relevant agreement for Arabia to sell oil only in USD in exchange for large US oil purchases from Arabia & military protection, & Arabia's purchase of US treasury bonds with the enormous excess USD thus received. If this arrangement collapses, as it must eventually, I cannot begin to imagine what would happen to the world's economy or the USD.

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