Saudi oil revenue falls to $25bn, lowest since February

Saudi Arabia's revenue in October from crude oil exports and products such as diesel, fell to the lowest figure since February, the kingdom's statistics office said on Thursday. The office reported that in the month of October, the kingdom's revenue from oil exports was $25.5bn, the lowest since hitting $24bn in February, the month the conflict in Ukraine sparked - a move that sent the price of oil skyrocketing, Middle East Eye reported.

The fall in revenue reflects how a weakened global economy and widespread inflation have impacted the price of oil. Global inflation hit a record 12 percent in October, according to Moody's, a financial credit rating business.

Still, Saudi Arabia has had a record year for oil sales and is still on track to potentially match its 2012 record for oil revenue, which stands at $337bn, according to Bloomberg. In the first nine months of 2022, Saudi Arabia received $278bn in oil revenue.

In March, the country hit $30bn in oil exports, the highest of any month over the past six years. And the $25bn figure is still higher than any other month between January 2016 and February 2022.

In August, Saudi Aramco, the state oil company valued at more than two trillion dollars, reported a 90 percent increase in profit during the second quarter, compared to the prior year.

And earlier this month, the kingdom reported a budget surplus of $27bn, constituting 2.6 percent of Saudi Arabia's gross domestic product (GDP).

In October, Opec+, the group of oil exporting countries led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, decided to cut oil production by two million barrels a day. The US responded in strong condemnation of the move, announcing soon after that it would reassess relations with the country.

US lawmakers were also outraged by the decision, with some introducing legislation to halt military support to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

However, since then, the outrage has simmered as gas prices in the US have fallen considerably. The average price of a gallon of gasoline is $3.10 this week, compared to $3.78 at the end of September.