Riyadh — Mubasher: Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, is looking to slash its crude oil exports in April to below 7 million barrels per day (bpd), along with maintaining its output “well below” 10 million-bpd threshold, a Saudi official said.

The move is a fresh sign for the kingdom’s strenuous efforts to curtail a supply glut and prop up oil prices, Reuters reported on Monday.

State-run Saudi Aramco’s oil allocations for April amount to 635,000 bpd, which is below requests made by refiners and clients for Saudi crude, the Saudi official added.

“Despite very strong demand from international waterborne customers at more than 7.6 million bpd, customers were allocated less than 7 million bpd,” the official said.

He cited that the kingdom’s oil exports in March will also be below 7 million bpd.

Aramco’s oil allocations for April underline “a deep cut of 635,000 bpd from customer requests for its crude oil,” the London-based news agency reported, citing the official.

The Saudi-dominated oil cartel last December agreed with Russia on significantly cutting oil production in a bid to clear a global supply glut.

OPEC along with Russia and its allied producers would reduce crude output by a collective 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) as of 2019.

 “Saudi Arabia is demonstrating extraordinary commitment to accelerating market rebalancing,” the Saudi official said.

He reiterated that the kingdom forecasts all other OPEC+ countries to show similar levels of contributions and high conformity.

In the same vein, Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih told Reuters on Sunday it would be too early to change tack about OPEC+ output policy at the group’s meeting in April.

“We will see what happens by April, if there is any unforeseen disruption somewhere else, but barring this I think we will just be kicking the can forward,” Falih said.