RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s oil revenues soared 89 percent year-on-year, helping the Kingdom post a SR77.9 billion ($20.8 billion) budget surplus during the second quarter of 2022.

Oil revenues reached SR250.4 billion in the three months to June, compared to SR132.1 billion in the same period in 2021.

The takings accounted for 68 percent of all Saudi Arabia’s revenues over 2022’s second quarter.

Oil exports reached $30 billion in March, the highest in at least six years, according to Bloomberg.

The rally in prices and rising production increased the value of crude exports by 123 percent, to almost $1 billion a day, official statistics showed.

Read more: Saudi Arabia posts $20.8bn budget surplus in Q2, the highest at least since 2019

Saudi Arabia’s crude exports soared in July to the highest level since April amid international pressure to tame elevated oil prices, Bloomberg reported.

Observed seaborne shipments from the Kingdom hit 7.5 million barrels a day last month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with a revised 6.6 million barrels a day in June.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, also known as OPEC+ , has been gradually boosting crude production for about a year, with benchmark oil prices trading around $100 a barrel.

This has been contributing to global inflation.

The OPEC alliance is gradually easing away from output curbs imposed early in the pandemic. 

The group agreed on Wednesday to a further 100,000 barrels per day oil production hike from September as it warned of a lack of spare capacity for any greater increases.

Read more: Squeezed global spare oil capacity limits OPEC+ output hike