Saudis Oil Prices discriminate between US, Europe and Asia

Saudi Arabia leaves oil pricing unchanged for its main markets in Asia in March, while raising it for markets in the United States and Europe.

State oil producer Saudi Aramco increased oil prices for the US by 10 cents a barrel and prices in Europe by $1.30 or $1.40 a barrel, as reported by Bloomberg.

However, the key Arab light grade remained at a $1 premium to the benchmark it uses for Asia.

Saudi Arabia, which is OPEC’s top producer and the defacto driver of OPEC+ production cuts, also announced last month that it was cutting its production by an additional 1 million barrels per day beyond its quota in February and March.

After the voluntary reduction by Saudi Arabia, the production cut of OPEC+ will now reach 8.125 million barrels per day in February and 8.05 million barrels per day in March.

This indicates that the group as a whole will reduce its output by 925,000 barrels per day in February and 850,000 barrels per day in March, relative to output rates in January, according to Anadolu Agency.

Also, with the COVID-19 pandemic curbing fuel use in many major economies, the profit margins earned by refiners have also reduced.