{"id":631214,"date":"2026-07-07T00:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T00:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=631214"},"modified":"2026-07-07T00:55:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T00:55:00","slug":"uae-crude-output-nears-record-high-following-opec-exit-amid-surge-in-chinese-buying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=631214","title":{"rendered":"UAE Crude Output Nears Record High Following OPEC Exit Amid Surge In Chinese Buying"},"content":{"rendered":"

UAE Crude Output Nears Record High Following OPEC Exit Amid Surge In Chinese Buying<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The United Arab Emirates raised \u200cits crude output to near record highs above 3.8 million barrels per day in June,\u00a0<\/strong>after the Gulf nation quit OPEC to escape production caps, Reuters reported <\/a>citing two sources familiar with production data said on Monday. Bloomberg data showed even higher UAE exports, rising to 3.94mmb\/d, just shy of the record hit in late 2025.<\/p>\n

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June’s output was the highest since April \u200b2020, <\/strong>according to Reuters estimates, exceeding levels seen before the Iran war and providing an early \u200bvindication of the UAE’s decision to leave OPEC and OPEC+ on May 1 \u2060to free production from quota restrictions.<\/p>\n

The UAE told OPEC it pumped 2.11 million bpd of crude in May at the height of the conflict shut-ins, down from about 3.40 million bpd in February. The International Energy Agency, however, assessed a much higher production level for \u200bboth months, seeing May \u200boutput at 2.8 million \u2060bpd and February at 3.64 million.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Underscoring the supply surge, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has been selling crude through tenders at discounted prices, traders told Reuters.\u00a0The rebound has outpaced that of \u200bother Gulf producers, many of whom have restored exports through the Strait \u200bof Hormuz but \u2060remain well below pre-conflict production levels.<\/p>\n

Abu Dhabi has argued that years of investment in production capacity \u200bjustified greater freedom to produce oil, with Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei saying at the time of the OPEC exit that the UAE owed it to investors to supply what global markets required “without restrictions”.<\/p>\n

The jump in output comes as oil markets \u200bhave shifted from concerns over severe supply disruptions during the Iran war, to worries about surplus supply.\u00a0Brent crude, which hit a four-year high above $126 in late April, was trading at about $72 a barrel on Monday, \u200caround levels \u2060seen before the outbreak of the Iran war in late February.<\/p>\n

Other Gulf nations also saw a surge in output<\/a>: combined crude and condensate exports from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, \u2060Iraq and Iran rose by more than 3.5 million bpd from May to 10.07 million bpd, <\/strong>Kpler \u200bdata shows.\u00a0Vortexa, another cargo analytics company, estimated June flows at 10.2 million bpd, up from 7 million bpd in \u200bMay but still way short of the 16.5 million bpd a year earlier.<\/p>\n

Saudi crude exports averaged 4.32 million bpd in June, according to Vortexa data, around 3 million bpd below February levels.
\nKuwaiti output rose to 1.65 million bpd in June, roughly triple \u2060May levels \u200bbut still nearly 1 million bpd short of pre-conflict production.
\nIraq, \u200bOPEC’s second-largest producer, exported about 780,000 bpd in June, roughly one-fifth of volumes shipped before the conflict, Vortexa data showed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Since the June 17 agreement between the U.S. and Iran to halt the conflict and restore shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the backlog of crude stranded in the \u200bGulf cleared more quickly, leaving about 23 million barrels still to transit the waterway, said Kpler analyst Johannes \u200bRauball.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in a curious twist, Sparta senior oil market analyst June Goh said that\u00a0Chinese teapot refineries have emerged as buyers in Adnoc\u2019s latest oil tender, <\/strong>drawn by wider discounts amid a short-term glut. Adnoc sold about 18 million barrels of crude via in fifth tender for loading through August; Upper Zakum was the main grade sold, while some Das also changed hands.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The observation in this tender is that the Chinese teapots are now out buying, <\/strong>whereas in previous tenders they were not even in the buyer list, indicating that the current discounts are now at a level that competes with Iranian and Russian alternatives<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

According to Sparta, the current \u2018mini-glut\u2019 reflects mismatch of prompt availability vs usual trading window two months ahead, where Mideast barrels should now be trading for September loading instead. However, unless Asian buyers pile up to refill empty SPRs, these extra barrels will need to first fill up commercial storage and then relieve the pressure in arbitrage trades to the West.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t just China: California is also buying UAE oil – some cargoes of Adnoc grades moved to US buyers via private negotiations, with likely destinations to US West Coast refineries<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Brent-Dubai EFS doesn\u2019t necessarily need to widen that much more because diving crude differentials are doing most of the heavy lifting to keep the arbs open into northwest Europe<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nMon, 07\/06\/2026 – 20:55<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UAE Crude Output Nears Record High Following OPEC Exit Amid Surge In Chinese Buying The United Arab Emirates raised \u200cits crude output to near record highs above 3.8 million barrels per day in June,\u00a0after the Gulf nation quit OPEC to escape production caps, Reuters reported citing two sources familiar with production data said on Monday.… Continue reading UAE Crude Output Nears Record High Following OPEC Exit Amid Surge In Chinese Buying<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":631215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-631214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-border-security","category-immigration","category-immigration-reform","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=631214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/631215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=631214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=631214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=631214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}