(Reuters) – Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, cut the official selling price for the Arab Light crude it sells to Asia a day after OPEC+ producers agreed to raise output.
The kingdom set the October price at $2.20 a barrel above the Oman/Dubai average, $1 below the September price, according to a document seen by Reuters.
The decrease was more than the 40-70 cents expected in a Reuters survey of refining sources.
The October prices for other grades – Arab Extra Light, Arab Medium and Arab Heavy – fell by 90 cents to $1, the document said.
Aramco also cut its prices for customers in Europe, but kept prices to U.S.
buyers largely unchanged.
Eight producers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia on Sunday agreed to raise production by 137,000 barrels per day in October, targeting higher market share.
The group, which is led by Saudi Arabia, has already increased production targets by 2.5 million bpd since April, equivalent to about 2.4% of global demand.
Oil prices have held strong despite the increases, supported by Western sanctions on Russia and Iran and as actual production rises from the group lag the headline increase.
Saudi crude official selling prices are usually released around the fifth of each month, and set the trend for Iranian, Kuwaiti and Iraqi prices, affecting about 9 million bpd of crude bound for Asia.
State oil giant Saudi Aramco sets its crude prices based on recommendations from customers and after calculating the change in the value of its oil over the past month, based on yields and product prices.
Below are Saudi prices for September in dollars per barrel.
Saudi term crude supplies to Asia are priced
as a differential to the Oman/Dubai average:
October September CHANGE
EXTRA $2.50 $3.50 -$1.00
LIGHT
LIGHT $2.20 $3.20 -$1.00
MEDIUM $1.75 $2.65 -$0.90
HEAVY $0.40 $1.30 -$0.90
Prices at Ras Tanura destined for United
States are set against ASCI:
October September CHANGE
EXTRA $6.15 $6.25 -$0.10
LIGHT
LIGHT $4.20 $4.20 0.00
MEDIUM $3.90 $4.00 -$0.10
HEAVY $3.25 $3.35 -$0.10
Prices at Ras Tanura destined for Northwest
Europe are set against ICE Brent:
October September CHANGE
EXTRA $4.15 $4.95 -$0.80
LIGHT
LIGHT $2.55 $3.35 -$0.80
MEDIUM $1.75 $2.55 -$0.80
HEAVY -$0.65 $0.15 -$0.80
Prices at Ras Tanura for Saudi oil destined
for the Mediterranean are set against ICE
Brent:
October September CHANGE
EXTRA $4.05 $4.85 -$0.80
LIGHT
LIGHT $2.35 $3.15 -$0.80
MEDIUM $1.75 $2.55 -$0.80
HEAVY -$0.95 -$0.15 -$1.10
(Reporting by Siyi Liu, Ahmad Ghaddar, and Dmitry Zhdannikov; Writing by Ahmad Ghaddar; Editing by Jan Harvey, David Goodman and Bill Berkrot)
