Saudi Arabia appears to be keeping its pledge to ensure global markets are well supplied with oil, barely letting up in shipments to the United States even after two of its biggest refining customers suffered crippling glitches.
A Reuters analysis of U.S. import data shows sales to the world’s top oil consumer have dipped less than 10 percent from a four-year high hit earlier this year. That decline was far less than expected given a six-month outage at a joint venture refinery in Texas and a devastating fire at a Chevron Corp. plant in California.
The robust supplies came at a time when U.S. and European sanctions have slashed Iranian crude shipments to the world oil market. Some estimates show Iranian crude supplies down 60 percent in September from 2011 levels.
