Saudi Oil Keeps Flooding Market With Output Pact Yet to Begin

Kingdom plans to produce 12.3 million barrels a day in April
Prices remain muted, with cuts to take effect weeks from now

Lights illuminate the oil processing facility in Saudi Aramco's oilfield in the Rub' Al-Khali (Empty Quarter) desert in Shaybah, Saudi Arabia.
Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

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By Brian Wingfield and Julian Lee

April 14, 2020 at 4:56 PM UTC

Updated on

April 15, 2020 at 9:18 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf suppliers may have agreed to cut oil production again starting next month, but by all indications the taps are set to remain wide open until then -- swelling stockpiles for at least a few more weeks.

The kingdom’s crude exports during the first two weeks of April were around 9.3 million barrels a day, according to tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with 6.8 million barrels a day during the same period in March.