Saudi Arabia’s Finance Ministry publicly released quarterly results for the first time this week. It reported that oil revenues in the first quarter more than doubled annually to $29.9bn (SR112bn). The price of Saudi’s benchmark Arab Light crude grade rose 73% over the same period to $52.12/B. However, January-February crude exports (the latest available) fell 10%, although initial figures indicate an increase in March.
Despite the massive annual gain, the quarterly oil revenue figure implies that the kingdom is actually slightly off track. It has budgeted for $128bn in oil revenues in 2017, which requires average quarterly takings of $32bn. (CONTINUED - 136 WORDS)
