Russia has surpassed Saudi Arabia to become the world’s second largest oil producer.
Data from the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI) shows that Russia pumped an average of 8.788 million barrels per day (bpd) in June, edging out Saudi Arabia, which produced an average of about 7.5 million bpd over the same period.
The JODI database shows the United States is still by far the world’s biggest oil producer with 10.879 million bpd, maintaining the position it assumed in 2018. Unlike Russia and Saudi Arabia, the US is not party to the OPEC+ deal to curtail production. That said, low oil prices has led to producers in the US – such as Chevron, the oil company that makes the Texaco lubricant products – cutting almost two million bpd in production.
It should also be noted that Saudi Arabia is taking a larger burden of the current production cuts, with it voluntarily cutting production by an extra 2.5 million bpd, over and above its obligations under the latest OPEC+ deal. With the demand for crude oil only just starting to make a tentative recovery, it’s likely to be some time before it is truly clear what the world’s three largest producers of oil can really do.
The US Energy Information Administration recently predicted that US output would average 11.26 million bpd this year – a sharper drop than expected – with a similar level of production expected next year. However, this is unlikely to affect its position as the world’s leading oil producer.
