A statement issued by Saudi Aramco announced that the Kingdom has raised the official selling price of Arab Light crude for Asia in October by 10 cents per barrel to $3.60 per barrel above the Oman/Dubai average. Five refining sources surveyed by Reuters indicated that the official selling price of Arab Light crude could increase by about 45 cents per barrel compared to the previous month, marking the highest price for this crude since the beginning of the year.
Typically, Saudi Aramco's official selling prices set the tone for the prices of Iranian, Kuwaiti, and Iraqi crude, impacting around nine million barrels per day of crude oil destined for Asia. On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia and Russia extended their voluntary oil production cuts until the end of the year, with Saudi Arabia cutting one million barrels per day and Russia 300,000 barrels per day, in addition to the cuts agreed upon in April by producers in the OPEC+ alliance, which will continue until the end of 2024.
These new cuts have led to an increase in oil prices above $90 per barrel, although they subsequently declined. Middle Eastern benchmark crude prices surged on Wednesday amid expectations that the new cuts would again reduce crude supplies, particularly high-sulfur grades, in the global market.
