Saudi Arabia continues to lead the charge in terms of the OPEC production cut deal – not only by keeping exports in check, but also by clearly communicating its next steps. By following through on its rhetoric, it has brought some much-needed credibility to the production cut deal – despite a lack of commitment from some other members. These efforts by Saudi Arabia can be clearly seen in U.S. crude imports of OPEC crude. Deliveries in July dropped below year-ago levels for the first time since late 2015, and absolute volumes have continued to drop in the two months since. Part of this drop relates to hurricane activity on the U.S. Gulf Coast reining in refinery operations…but some is a conscious effort: (Click to enlarge) Much of this descent has been led by Saudi Arabia, whose deliveries averaged just over 700,000 bpd in Q3, after averaging 1.1 million bpd […]