Saudi Arabia Posts Record Oil Sales on Higher Prices

Saudi oil output averaged 9 million barrels a day at $35 a barrel, up from $27 a barrel in 2003, Samba Financial, the country’s second-largest bank, said in a report e-mailed to Bloomberg yesterday. The government, which gets three-quarters its revenue from oil, had a $26.1 billion budget surplus after projecting a deficit of $8 billion a year ago, the bank said.