Saudi Arabia Oil Production and Exports

Production and capacity

Saudi output is set by policy, not geology. The kingdom produced about 8.95 million b/d in 2024 under OPEC+ cuts, according to OPEC's statistical bulletin, well below what it could pump. In January 2024 the Energy Ministry told Aramco to hold maximum sustainable capacity at 12 million b/d and drop plans to reach 13 million b/d. The EIA estimated effective capacity at 11.6 million b/d in 2025.

The gap between output and capacity is spare capacity: barrels that can be brought online within weeks. Saudi Arabia usually holds more of it than any other country, which is why its decisions carry so much weight in what moves oil prices.

Most production comes from a handful of giant fields operated by Saudi Aramco. Ghawar, the world's largest conventional oilfield, had capacity of about 5.8 million b/d in 2017 according to the EIA. Safaniya is the largest offshore oilfield. Khurais and Manifa are newer onshore and shallow-water fields.

Saudi Arabia in 2026: war and Hormuz

Most Saudi exports normally leave through the Strait of Hormuz from Ras Tanura and Ju'aymah on the Gulf coast. After the US-Israeli strikes on Iran on 28 February 2026, Iran effectively closed the strait. Saudi Arabia responded by pushing crude west:

• The East-West pipeline (Petroline) runs about 1,200 km from Abqaiq to Yanbu on the Red Sea. It has a capacity of 7 million b/d, of which about 5 million b/d is available for export, according to the EIA.
• Yanbu loadings averaged 4.4 million b/d in the five days to 24 March 2026, Bloomberg reported, against about 1.7 million b/d from Saudi western ports in 2025, according to the IEA.
• Drones launched from Iraq hit the pipeline on 10 September 2026, and it was shut as a precaution, Al Jazeera reported. Yanbu exports had resumed by early October.

Even with the bypass, output fell sharply. Saudi Arabia told OPEC its production dropped to 6.24 million b/d in August 2026, the lowest it has reported since 1990, according to Bloomberg. Read more on the chokepoint in our Strait of Hormuz guide.

Export grades and official selling prices (OSPs)

Aramco sells five export grades, from lightest to heaviest: Arab Super Light, Arab Extra Light, Arab Light, Arab Medium and Arab Heavy. Arab Light is the flagship. Most crude goes to Asia under long-term contracts, priced off a monthly formula rather than spot tenders.

Around the 5th of each month Aramco publishes official selling prices for the following month's loadings. Each OSP is a premium or discount to a regional benchmark:

• Asia: the average of Oman and Dubai quotes
• North-west Europe and the Mediterranean: ICE Brent
• United States: the Argus Sour Crude Index (ASCI)

Traders read the OSPs as Riyadh's view of demand. The 2026 swings were extreme. The Arab Light premium to Asia hit a record +$19.50 per barrel for May 2026 loadings. For August it was cut by $11 to −$1.50, the largest monthly cut in Reuters data going back to 2003, as Hormuz traffic partly resumed. For November 2026 Aramco set it at −$5.00, the widest discount since June 2020.

Leader of OPEC+

Saudi Arabia chairs OPEC's ministerial meetings and, with Russia, steers the wider OPEC+ alliance. It carried the largest voluntary cuts from 2023, including an extra 1 million b/d of its own. OPEC+ began unwinding the voluntary cuts in April 2025. In 2026 a series of 188,000 b/d monthly increases for June to September completed the unwinding of the 1.65 million b/d layer agreed in April 2023.

At meetings on 6 September and 4 October 2026, the seven countries still in the voluntary scheme (Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman) kept targets unchanged through November. Saudi Arabia's required production is about 10.5 million b/d, but actual output is far below it while Hormuz is disrupted. The UAE, long the main internal critic of quotas, left OPEC and OPEC+ on 1 May 2026 (see the UAE page).

Oil and the Saudi budget

Oil still provides most government revenue. The IMF estimated the kingdom's fiscal break-even oil price at about $98 per barrel in 2024 and projected about $91 for 2025. That is the price that balances the budget, and it sits well above the $60–70 range in which Brent traded for much of 2025. Higher prices in 2026 helped revenue, but lower export volumes offset part of the gain.