Government reserves:
Budget:
Revenues:
Budget deficit:
PIF (sovereign wealth fund):
Foreign exchange reserves: link here.
Policy: Saudi Arabia does not openly publish the amount of assets it holds within its sovereign wealth fund, known as the Public Investment Fund (PIF). The Institute of International Finance estimated in a report in June that the kingdom has assets worth around $300 billion with roughly a quarter of its holdings overseas. The Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute puts the figure closer to $320 billion. December, 2019. Link here.
April 7, 2024: scales back $1.5-trillion NEOM project. Raises questions.
December 16, 2020: reining in their budget.
December 15, 2020: from Reuters, Saudi Arabia expects to maintain government reserves at the Saudi Central Bank of 346 billion riyals ($92.23 billion) in 2020 and 280 billion riyals in 2021. $1 = 3.7513 riyals.
November 23, 2020: Simon Watkins weighs in: not a pretty picture.
November 20, 2020: Aramco's "strength" is a mirage -- The WSJ.
November 16, 2020: Aramco to issue US dollar-denominated bonds to cover $75 billion annual dividend.
November 3, 2020: Saudi Aramco profit plunges.
October 7, 2020: Saudi Aramco may have to sell some assets.
October 2, 2020: in deep doo-doo, The Mideast Monitor.
September 14, 2020: Saudi Arabia's crude oil production down to 8.03 million bopd. Say what? May, 2020, data. A long way from their threat of producing 13 million bopd. Is this Prince Salman's third change?
September 12, 2020: update; view from Foreign Policy (May, 2020); more recent articles;
September 9, 2020: Saudi Arabia squeezing its cash cow to stay afloat.
September 8, 2020: OPEC basket in free fall, trading below $42.
September 6, 2020: is Vision 2030 already dead?
September 6, 2020: update here;
August 27, 2020: Saudi Arabia sees oil revenues plunge in June, 2020 -- oilprice.
August 19, 2020: Kuwait: a canary in the coal mine?
June 12, 2020: the Bakken vs Saudi? XOM's decision. Saudi Arabia's petrochemical unit losing money. Lots of money.
June 12, 2020: price of oil declines 6% this week.
June 10, 2020: why Saudi Arabia will lose the next oil price war.
May 25, 2020: plan disrupted.
January 5, 2020: Saudi's foreign exchange reserves surge after the IPO is launched.
December 9, 2019: Saudi Arabia denies it is running out of money.
August 21, 2019: Motiva, fully owned by Saudi, enters the US petrochemical industry.
August 10, 2019: update on the IPO.
August 3, 2019: update on "Fantasy Land."
July 30, 2019: SABIC's profits plunge.
June 13, 2019: XOM-Sabic joint venture; ethane cracker in Louisiana.
May 22, 2019: Saudi Aramco's first entry into production of oil or gas outside Saudi Arabia. And, it was with Sempra Energy's export terminal in Texas. Whoo-hoo!
October 21, 2018: with the Khashoggi murder, hard to see where this "plan" will go.
August 25, 2018: the Saudi Aramco IPO is believed to be dead, but Saudi's "minister of energy" says the IPO is not dead. Okay.
July 24, 2018: rumors that Prince Salman/Saudi Aramco might buy 70% (or all) of SABIC, the huge Saudi Arabian petrochemical company whose #1 product seems to be free cash flow.
March 19, 2018: international IPO shelved. The WSJ story here. This is an interesting spin: Higher price of oil has diminished push for large international public offering.
March 11, 2018: IPO delayed until 2019. Prince Salman wants a $2 trillion market valuation. Guys in the back room wearing visors can't get to $2 trillion.
March 4, 2018: SaudiLand. SinaiWorld.
February 22, 2018: Saudi Arabia will invest $64 billion in developing its entertainment industry over the next decade.
February 19, 2018: Saudi Arabia plans to build sixteen (16) nuclear reactors within the next 20 - 25 years -- total cost: over $80 billion.
February 13, 2018: Wood hired by Saudi Aramco to support in the delivery of one of its "mega projects."
The new multi-million dollar, five-year, contract will see teams from Wood’s UK, Saudi Arabia and India offices undertake front end engineering design (FEED), major increment and overall project management consultancy work to develop the Marjan oil field in the state’s eastern province.February 11, 2018: renewable energy needed to save the kingdom.
... misgivings among substantial parts of the public and the business community about the sale. Some fear Riyadh is relinquishing its crown jewels to foreigners cheaply at a time of low oil prices. Those misgivings are not likely to block the IPO, which is a central part of a drive to make the economy more efficient and diversify it beyond oil exports. Since 2015, the government has shown it is willing and able to carry out contentious reforms, such as cuts to civil servants' financial allowances. But the public criticism, rare in a country where there is usually little open debate about government policies, could influence the way the IPO is structured. Up to 5 percent of the company is due to be sold next year, with listings in Riyadh and at least one foreign market.
February 17, 2017: is the Prince Salman plan already in trouble?
January 14, 2017: why Prince Salman's "Vision 2030" plan will fail.
January 13, 2017: Saudi Arabia: production now below 10 million bopd; cuts will deepen.
December 6, 2016: a $100 billion investment fund to invest in US and US jobs. $50 billion from SoftBank (Japan); $50 billion from Saudi Arabia.
November 23, 2016: the honeymoon for Prince Salman is over; scathing report.
November 8, 2016: Saudi Arabia will "modify" $266 billion worth of mega-projects; and, will close the books on 2016, by paying all debt owed to government employees, contractors, and its citizens with back pay, IOUs, etc.
November 3, 2016: new projects in Saudi Arabia; McDermott adds new office, adds 300 employees in Saudi Arabia; Saudi Aramco sets up new division to facilitate in-kingdom projects
October 20, 2016: Exxon's CEO comments not good news for Saudi Arabia.
October 19, 2016: Saudi Arabia will offer $17.5 billion in bonds, and announced that they will pay less interest than originally "advertised." Stingy, huh?
October 17, 2016: not getting any better for Saudi.
October 8, 2016: Saudi Arabia halts aid to Egypt. No explanation given.
October 5, 2016: Prince Salman's plan after one year has been incredibly unimpressive. It appears the only thing worse has been ObamaCare's track record.
August 14, 2016: Saudi Arabia's cash reserves could be exhausted by the time your high school freshman graduates from high school.
August 9, 2016: OPEC to meet in September. It is "rare" OPEC to meet "outside" of its normal twice-a-year schedule.
July 25, 2016: ExxonMobil, Saudi Arabia in discussions to develop a petrochemical complex in Texas or Louisiana.
July 21, 2016: Saudi Aramco signs off on $13.3 billion gas processing plant.
July 18, 2016: an update on Saudi Arabia's disappearing foreign exchange reserves.
June 27, 2016: OPEC has lost a huge amount of revenue in the past year (2015).
June 26, 2016: has Saudi Arabia just made a huge change in strategy on oil? The tea leaves suggest that Saudi Arabia is making a huge bet taking a new tack. [The third definition of "tack":
June 1, 2020: Saudi foreign exchange reserves fall again. Around $40 billion in foreign current reserves were transferred to the kingdom's wealth fund in March-April, 2020. Money needed to finance an investment spree by its sovereign wealth fund. --Bloomberg.
Net foreign assets in the Arab world's biggest economy declined by $20.9 billion in April, a decrease of 4.5% from the previous month, according to data released Sunday by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority. The fall follows a $27 billion plunge in March, when the stockpile shrank at the fastest pace in at least two decades.
"We're still in a comfortable situation," the central bank's governor, Ahmed Alkholifey, said in an interview with Al-Arabiya television on Monday. The change in the level of reserves between the end of May and the end of April is "not significant" and the stockpile is still enough to cover more than 40 months of imports, he said.
May 31, 2016: Chinese diesel exports surge on Saudi's trillion-dollar mistake; Saudi's attempts to crush US shale oil industry backfired.
May 27, 2016: favorite global production graphic has been updated by the EIA.
May 27, 2016: could possibly see the IPO launched in 2017 - 2018.
May 23, 2016: The Salman Plan -- the death knell of OPEC.
May 23, 2016: GE announces deals with Saudi Arabia totaling $1.4 billion. Data points:
While newly appointed [oil minister] is a capable technocrat, he is unlikely to have the independent authority of his predecessor. Importantly, (the 30-year-old Mohammad bin Salman) is more focused on ending Saudi's dependence on hydrocarbons through sweeping reform and maintaining market share versus Iran than he is on pursuing higher oil prices. While it makes for a big news headline, it does not represent a shift in the Kingdom's current oil policy."Let's drop back and think about this. If you are a prince and living the lifestyle of a playboy and it's clear that no matter how bad things get, you are set for life. If you are 80 years old, there is no question that you will outlive any problems that occur "now."
| 5/9/2016 | 05/09/2015 | 05/09/2014 | 05/09/2013 | 05/09/2012 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active Rigs | 28 | 84 | 192 | 183 | 207 |
Discoveries of new oil reserves have dropped to their lowest level for more than 60 years, pointing to potential supply shortages in the next decade.
Oil explorers found 2.8 billion barrels of crude and related liquids last year. This is the lowest annual volume recorded since 1954, reflecting a slowdown in exploration activity as hard-pressed oil companies seek to conserve cash.Most of the new reserves that have been found are offshore in deep water, where oilfields take an of average seven years to bring into production, so the declining rate of exploration success points to reduced supplies from the mid-2020s.
The dwindling rate of discoveries does not mean that the world is running out of oil; in recent years most of the increase in global production has come from existing fields, not new finds.A lot will happen between now and 2035. Saudi Arabia has more pressing problems. For investors the bigger problem is that share value is determined to a great extent by amount of oil in reserves, not in production.
But if the rate of oil discoveries does not improve, it will create a shortfall in global supplies of about 4.5m barrels per day by 2035, Wood Mackenzie said.
That could mean higher oil prices, and make the world more reliant on onshore oilfields where the resource base is already known, such as US shale.
| 5/9/2016 | 05/09/2015 | 05/09/2014 | 05/09/2013 | 05/09/2012 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active Rigs | 27 | 84 | 192 | 183 | 207 |
From April 20 to July 10, 2016, NOAA and partners will conduct the three-cruise Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas expedition on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer to collect critical baseline information of unknown and poorly known areas in and around the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer is operating on Fiji time (GMT +12) during the 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas expedition.
Daily daytime remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dives are planned, with ROV deployment at approximately 0830 and ROV recovery at approximately 1630 Fiji time most days.Currently Central Time is five hours ahead of GMT time. At noon today, it will be 5:00 p.m. GMT.
The Alberta wildfire that has destroyed entire neighbourhoods in Fort McMurray is taking a growing toll on the energy industry, forcing as much as a quarter of the country’s oil output off-line.
Oil sands projects, pipelines and electrical facilities around Fort McMurray have shut down and workers have been sent to safer locales.
With the inferno having expanded more than tenfold in a day, there is no estimate yet of when many of the operations can resume.
Northern Alberta’s fiery disaster, and fears of a worsening supply problem, have prompted global oil traders to bid up crude prices. U.S. benchmark West Texas intermediate rose 38 cents (U.S.) to settle at $44.70 a barrel on Friday. Prices for Canadian heavy oil also rose on tightening supplies in the affected region.
If operations can get back online relatively quickly, as was the case last year when wildfires caused outages far south of Fort McMurray – and if there is no damage to facilities – the market impact should be relatively small, said Jackie Forrest, vice-president at ARC Financial Corp.
“The thing is, we’re not certain it’s going to stay that way. It could be that this fire grows and that we actually see some damage to oil sands facilities that isn’t temporary,” Ms. Forrest said.
Four takeaways:Estimates place the volume that companies have shut off at between 800,000 and one million barrels a day. Prices have yet to spike dramatically, largely because the outages come at a time of brimming inventories in North America. No companies are estimating when evacuated staff can return from shelters and other temporary housing around the province.
