Saudi industrial production fell 23.5% in August, before crude shipments rebounded

Saudi Arabia's industrial production fell 23.5% in August 2026 from a year earlier, the General Authority for Statistics said in preliminary figures on Sunday. Crude shipments bottomed in that month and have since rebounded.

August was a month of the war the United States and Israel are fighting against Iran. That war began on February 28 and has disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage out of the Gulf. Tanker attacks there hit their highest week of the war in early October, Reuters reported on October 7.

Oil activities, the authority's measure of oil-related output, fell 33.6% on the year, while activity outside oil rose 1.2%. Mining and quarrying fell 35.8% on the year and 24% from July, the authority said, and a 24.1% fall in refined petroleum products pulled manufacturing down 8.8%, both on the year. Industrial production also fell 14% from July.

Figures from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries put the crude the kingdom pumped at 6.238 million barrels a day in August, down from 8.135 million in July. That was the lowest monthly production since 1990.

From the August low

Preliminary data from the ship-tracking firm Kpler, reported on September 28, put August crude exports at 2.446 million barrels a day. Loadings at Ras Tanura, the main port on the Gulf, were 929,000 barrels a day, against 6.411 million barrels a day in February. Crude from that port reaches the ocean through the strait.

The East-West pipeline carries crude from the eastern fields to Yanbu on the Red Sea, a route around the strait. Argus Media reported on October 1 that the line supplies export loadings at the port and also refineries, power stations and desalination plants on that coast. Al Jazeera reported on October 6, citing Kpler, that flows were about 2 million barrels a day in August, the lowest month since January, after attacks by Yemen's Houthi group made the Red Sea route hard to use.

Those August readings are not the latest ones. By September 28, the same preliminary Kpler count had the kingdom on track to ship about 5.4 million barrels a day that month, up from 2.446 million in August. The count showed exports through the strait recovering, with oil diverted from Yanbu after attacks on the pipeline.

Drone attacks on September 10 led the Saudi Ministry of Energy to shut the line as a precaution. It restarted on September 22, Reuters reported. On October 6, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said oil pumped through the pipeline had reached 5.8 million barrels a day, against a capacity of 7 million that Saudi Aramco, the state oil company, has published.