Saudi Arabia to slash gasoline imports by 29% in June

Saudi Arabia is expected to slash gasoline imports by nearly 29 percent in June, as domestic production capacity ramps up following refinery maintenance work, traders said on Monday.

The world’s top oil exporter will import nearly 57,000 barrels per day of gasoline in June versus 80,000 bpd in May, traders said.

Saudi Arabia typically imports between 60,000 to 70,000 bpd each month, traders said, but the OPEC member had raised imports in recent months due to an outage at a 44,000 bpd hydrocracking unit at its largest refinery in Ras Tanura and planned maintenance work at its 120,000 bpd Riyadh refinery.

Aramco restarted the Riyadh refinery recently following a 39 day shutdown, while the hydrocracking unit at Ras Tanura is expected to come back online in June, traders said.

Arabian Business