Saudi Arabia to keep borders closed for one more week

Saudi Arabia has extended a ban on movement in and out of the country for another week amid lingering fears over the spread of new, more infectious strains of the Covid-19 virus.

The discovery of these new strains earlier this month has resulted in a host of travel restrictions being imposed in numerous countries across the globe, dashing hopes of a recovery in oil demand before the end of the year.

The Saudi interior ministry announced overnight that all inbound and outbound international passenger flights will remain suspended for one more week, as will entry into the kingdom through any Saudi land or sea ports.

But there will be exceptions for departures of non-Saudi citizens by air, and for the movement of goods such as commodities in an attempt to not interrupt supply chains.

The measures have been in place since 20 December and will allow the country "to continue assessing the situation, and to ensure the safety of citizens and expatriates," the interior ministry said. This suggests the measures could be extended further, if deemed necessary.

Saudi Arabia's Mideast Gulf neighbours Kuwait and Oman also opted to close their borders last week in response to reports of the new Covid-19 strains, although both countries look set to re-open their borders within days as initially planned.

This is despite several countries in the Middle East having recorded cases of the new Covid-19 variant, including Lebanon, Jordan and Israel, with most cases found in people recently returning from the UK.

The emergence of these new strains and resulting flight curbs could deal a blow to what has been a fragile recovery in air travel and jet fuel demand, both in the region and globally, since the height of the global travel restrictions early in the second quarter.

But the impact in Saudi Arabia is likely to be limited as jet fuel demand in the country has been largely supported by the resumption of domestic flights in late May following the mid-March suspension of all air travel across the kingdom.

Jet fuel demand in Saudi Arabia fell by 78pc in the second quarter of 2020 to 22,000 b/d after the travel restrictions were imposed in the middle of March, down from an average of 100,000 b/d in the corresponding period in 2019, according to the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (Jodi).

But demand edged up to 32,000 b/d in June following the restart of domestic flights on 31 May. And even as the country resumed a limited number of international flights in September following a six-month hiatus, month-on-month demand rose by just 3,000 b/d in October, according to Jodi.

By Nader Itayim