Saudi Arabia to Raise Crude Oil Export Prices to Asia Starting April

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] Bloomberg reported on the 7th (local time) that Saudi Arabia will raise the price of crude oil exported to Asia and the United States starting in April.

Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company Aramco announced that it will increase the premium on the benchmark price of light crude oil exported to the Asian region by 40 cents per barrel to $1.40 starting in April. Bloomberg explained that $1.40 is the highest level since March of last year. Furthermore, Aramco's decision to raise export crude oil prices is interpreted as indicating expectations that future crude oil demand will continue to increase.

Earlier, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the non-OPEC major oil-producing countries, collectively known as 'OPEC Plus (OPEC+),' decided at their meeting on the 4th to allow only a slight increase in production in April, considering the uncertainties surrounding the oil market, contrary to expectations.

Saudi Arabia voluntarily cut its daily oil production by 1 million barrels over the past two months and announced that it will maintain the 1 million barrel production cut policy at least until April.

As OPEC+ did not increase production as expected, international oil prices rose sharply after the OPEC+ meeting on the 4th. The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures price rose by 7.8% over two days following the OPEC+ meeting.