Saudi Arabia third largest crude producer in 2018: OPEC

The top three crude oil producing countries in 2018 were the United States (10.96 mbd), Russia (10.53 mbd) and Saudi Arabia (10.32 mbd) respectively, OPEC noted in its latest ‘2019 Annual Statistical Bulletin’.

Total world crude oil production increased sharply in 2018 by 1.21 million barrels/day (mbd), or 1.6 percent, as compared to 2017, to reach 75.78 mbd, marking a historical high and the highest annual growth since 2015, the report added.

OPEC crude oil production declined year-on-year (YoY) by 415,000 barrels per day (bpd), or 1.3 percent, while crude production by non-OPEC countries grew by 1.628 mbd, or 3.8 percent.

With an average of 98.73 mbd in 2018, world oil demand grew by 1.5 percent YoY, with the largest increases recorded for the Asia and Pacific region (particularly China and India) and North America.

OPEC member countries exported an average of 24.67 mbd of crude oil in 2018, a slight increase of about 14,000 bpd, or 0.1 percent, compared to 2017, OPEC report maintained.