Aramco
An employee walks past crude oil storage tanks at the Juaymah Tank Farm in Saudi Aramco's Ras Tanura oil refinery. Saudi Aramco started reducing production earlier this week ahead of the May 1 deadline when new OPEC+ output targets kick in. Image Credit: Bloomberg

Dubai: Saudi Aramco started reducing production earlier this week ahead of the May 1 deadline when new OPEC+ output targets kick in, according to a Saudi industry official familiar with the matter.

Aramco started to reduce production from about 12 million barrels a day to achieve the new level of 8.5 million barrels a day, the same person said, asking not to be named discussing non-public information. Aramco is likely to be pumping at the 8.5 million barrels a day target slightly ahead of the May 1 target, the person added.

Aramco didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.