Saudi Aramco Raises March Oil-Price Differentials to Europe
February 06, 2012, 6:43 AM ESTBy Anthony DiPaola
(Updates with table of monthly differentials and changes.
Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the world’s largest crude exporter, raised differentials used in determining its official selling prices for all grades to customers in Northwest Europe and the Mediterranean for shipments in March.
The state-owned producer, known as Saudi Aramco, increased the premium for Arab Super Light crude to Asia by 10 cents a barrel to $4.20 above the average of Oman and Dubai grades, the Gulf benchmarks used by traders in Asia, while cutting Asian differentials for four other grades. Aramco reduced all premiums and discounts for U.S. buyers, the company said in an e-mailed statement today.
Persian Gulf oil producers such as Saudi Arabia sell most of their crude under long-term contracts to refiners. Most of the region’s state oil companies price their crude at a premium or discount to a benchmark.
The following table gives differentials for the regions into which Aramco sells in relation to benchmark prices, the month-on-month change and the degrees of gravity as defined by the American Petroleum Institute. Differentials are in U.S. dollars a barrel.
--Editors: Bruce Stanley, Linda Shen
To contact the reporter on this story: Anthony DiPaola in Dubai at adipaola@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stephen Voss on sev@bloomberg.net.
