The income of the Kingdom, which pumped nearly one third of OPEC’s production during the period, stood at around $116 billion, according to the figures by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the US Department of Energy.

The Kingdom, which controls nearly a quarter of recoverable global oil resources, saw its income jump by 64 percent to $100 billion in the first half of this year from $61 billion during the corresponding period of 2009, said EIA.

Globally, higher oil prices may boost the OPEC’s income by more than $180 billion in 2010 and earnings may surge further next year, it was predicted.

The income of the group, which stood at about $571 billion in 2009, is projected to rise to nearly $752 billion this year, an increase of $181 billion, according to the statistics arm of the US Department of Energy.

The earnings are expected to increase to $821 billion in 2011 on the back of high crude prices and OPEC’s plan to hike output to meet higher global demand, said the “EIA August 2010 Short-Term Energy Outlook” report.

However, the 2008 has remained by far the best year in terms of earnings for OPEC with the income touching about $966 billion as prices hit an all-time high of $147 a barrel.

Iran, which controls the world’s second largest oil deposits after Saudi Arabia, continued to retain its spot, with an income of about $41 billion in the first seven months of 2010. It was followed by the UAE and Nigeria, which recorded earnings of $38 billion each during the period.

While Kuwait and Angola recorded earnings of about $33 billion each, the income of Algeria was put at $31 billion, Iraq $28 billion, Libya $25 billion, Venezuela $22 billion, Qatar $20 billion and the smallest OPEC producer Ecuador $4 billion.

The UAE’s oil export revenue surged to about $33 billion in the first half of 2010 from around $21 billion during the corresponding period last year, the data showed. The earnings of Kuwait, another major Gulf oil producer, also increased to $29 billion from $20 billion in the same period.

The income of the other Gulf oil producers jumped from $10 billion to $17 billion in Qatar, to $35 billion from $22 billion in Iran and to $24 billion from $16 billion in Iraq, which is not included in OPEC’s quota system.

OPEC net oil export earnings on a per capita basis reached $1.54 trillion in 2009, according to the EIA report.