The resilience of Saudi Arabia’s oil sector has helped the kingdom maintain robust trade surpluses throughout the Middle East conflict. Despite massive disruption to Aramco’s oil operations and other major export-oriented industrial sectors such as fertilizers and petrochemicals, its first half trade surplus of $41.3bn was up 53% year-on-year. The second half of 2026 promises to be more challenging, with Houthi attacks on Saudi energy assets and shipping in the Red Sea causing further disruption, but the kingdom should remain in surplus (see chart 1).
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