Total revenues of the Kingdom are expected to reach SR1.1 trillion ($293.3 billion) in the current year, or a surplus of SR147 billion ($39.2 billion) over the projected SR855 billion ($228 billion) budget estimated earlier in the year, a financial report said.
The expected surplus is based on the average price of oil at $90 per barrel for the remaining period of the year compared to the average price of Brent oil at $105 during the last nine months of the current year, the report, filed and analyzed by Al-Eqtisadiah daily, said.
Saudi daily oil exports averaged 6.73 million barrels compared to local daily consumption of nearly 2.3 million barrels, the report said.
Normally Saudi crude oil is sold at prices less than Brent prices by nearly $4 and, therefore, the price of Saudi crude oil averaged $101 during the last nine months and is expected to remain at $86 in the remaining period of the year, the report said.
Oil revenues normally comprise nearly 90 percent of the Saudi budget while the remaining 10 percent are coming from nonoil sources, the report said.
Saudi oil revenues are expected to reach SR780 billion ($208 billion) in the first nine months of the current year while the remaining three months of the year are expected to fetch SR221.5 billion ($59 billion) in oil revenues, the report said.
Based on the above data, oil revenues by the end of year are expected to hit SR1 trillion in addition to nonoil revenues of SR100 billion thus bringing the total revenues of the current year to nearly SR1.1 trillion, or a surplus of SR147 billion over the projected budget of 2014, the report pointed out.
Arab News
20 October
