Thursday, March 12, 2026

Largest crude oil exporter has quadrupled its heating oil imports

Largest crude oil exporter has quadrupled its heating oil imports

To meet electricity needs in the course of the scorching summer, Saudi Arabia increased its imports of the dirtiest style of oil to the very best level in greater than three years.

Heating oil shipments rose in June to their highest level since not less than late 2020 and are expected to stay high this month, in response to data from market researchers Kpler and Vortexa. Purchases, which usually surge in the most popular months when air-con cranks up, have risen as much as fourfold since March, to about 350,000 barrels a day, in response to Vortexa.

Saudi Arabia is the region’s largest consumer of fuel oil, a grimy product left over when refineries make fuels resembling gasoline and diesel. The country also burns crude oil on to generate electricity, which has likely contributed to the dominion’s exports falling to levels that 10-month lowof about 5.6 million barrels a day in June, in response to data compiled by Bloomberg. Heating oil is normally sold cheaper than crude oil since it is heavier and more harmful to the environment.

Temperatures in Riyadh were Mid 40 °C this week, in response to AccuWeather, and may above 50 °C (122 °F) in summer. The heat drives up the demand for electricity for air-con, which in turn forces the dominion to burn more oil.

Saudi Aramco, which is accountable for the dominion’s oil supplies, declined to comment on heating oil imports.

Time to stop

Saudi Arabia plans to stop burning liquid fuels to generate electricity this decade and goals to realize net zero emissions by 2060. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who’s pursuing a rapid modernization program, has promised to extend solar and wind Power generation. State-owned oil producer Saudi Aramco signed contracts price $25 billion last month to extract natural gas from the Jafurah field, which shall be utilized in power plants, amongst other things.

The company plans to provide enough gas to interchange all liquid fuel in power plants by 2030. This could liberate about one million barrels of crude oil per day used domestically in the course of the summer months for export.

Saudi Arabia buys a lot of the fuel oil produced by Iraq and Bahrain, and in addition imports cargoes from the United Arab Emirates. In April, the dominion resumed purchases from Russia after a five-month hiatus. Shipments from there have almost doubled since then, but are still below last summer’s levels.

Total heating oil imports are expected to stay high again in July, with each Kpler and Vortexa already expecting purchases of around 300,000 barrels per day this month.

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