Saudi Arabia Adds Half a Bakken to Global Oil Market in a Month

Saudi Arabia led a surge in OPEC crude oil production in March.

The nation boosted crude output by 658,800 barrels a day in March to an average of 10.294 million a day, according to data the country communicated to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ secretariat in Vienna. That’s about half the daily production from the Bakken formation in North Dakota that’s among the fastest-growing regions for shale drilling in the U.S.

Oil prices have rallied almost 18 percent in New York this month on stronger fuel demand and as a record decline in U.S. rigs fanned speculation that the nation’s production will slow from its highest in three decades. Prices collapsed almost 50 percent last year as Saudi Arabia led OPEC in maintaining production in the face of a global glut rather than make way for booming U.S. shale output.

Rising demand and weaker U.S. output in coming months will whittle away the global market’s surplus, the group said.

“Higher global refinery runs, driven by increased seasonal demand, along with the improvement in refinery margins, are likely to increase demand for crude oil over the coming months,” OPEC’s Vienna-based research department said. “Given expectations for lower U.S. crude oil production in the second half of the year, these higher refinery needs will be partially met by crude oil stocks, reducing the current overhang in inventories.”