Saudi Aramco raises oil prices slightly in Asia, slashes in Europe
The actions follow signals from OPEC+ that it won't make changes to oil supplies and will let member-countries start increasing production
Saudi Aramco President and CEO Amin Nasser speaks during the CERAWeek oil summit in Houston, Texas, on March 18, 2024. (Photo: Getty Images)
Saudi Arabia is cautiously bullish on Asia’s appetite for oil while it tries to stoke demand in Europe.
That’s the takeaway from state-owned Aramco’s decision to raise the price of its Arab Light crude to Asia for the first time in three months – an increase of 20 cents to $2 a barrel above the regional Oman-Dubai benchmark, Bloomberg reports. At the same time, the world’s biggest oil company slashed prices in Europe by $2.75, its biggest reduction since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The moves come days after OPEC+ signaled it would make no changes to oil supplies this month and maintained its tentative plans to let member-countries start increasing production next quarter.
In contrast to its rivals whose stock prices are hitting record highs this year, Aramco is down 17%, the worst performance among the world’s 10 biggest oil companies by revenue, a reflection of its production cuts. PetroChina, by contrast, is up 24% while Exxon Mobil has gained 17% and Shell has risen 4.6% since the beginning of 2024.