Saudi Arabia's crude oil exports rose by 430,000 barrels per day (bpd) in June, while oil used by the country's power sector surged to its highest in almost a year, official data showed on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia ramped up its crude production to a record in June, reaffirming its strategy of defending market share and feeding a rise in global as well as domestic demand.

The world's biggest crude exporter shipped 7.365 million bpd in June, up from 6.935 million bpd in May, figures published by the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI) showed.

Saudi Arabia burns higher crude volumes to generate power for air-conditioning during the hot summer months. It has also been feeding more crude to domestic refineries as it expands oil product exports, though such plants refined less in June.

Domestic refineries processed 2.099 million bpd, down from 2.423 million bpd in May, the JODI data showed.

Crude oil directly burnt by Saudi Arabia to generate power surged to 894,000 bpd in June from 677,000 bpd in May.

Exports of refined oil products in June fell to 1.008 million bpd, from 1.318 million bpd a month earlier.

The kingdom's rapid transition into one of the largest oil refiners adds an extra dimension to global oil markets.

State oil giant Saudi Aramco has stakes in more than 5 million bpd of refining capacity, at home and abroad, landing it a place among the global leaders in making oil products.

JODI compiles data supplied by oil-producing members of global bodies including the International Energy Agency and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Saudi Arabia's crude production for June stood at 10.564 million bpd, up from 10.333 million bpd in May.

The kingdom told Opec it trimmed production by 200,000 bpd to 10.36 million bpd in July. – Reuters