SAUDI ARAMCO LOWERS OIL PRICES FOR ASIA

Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil and gas company Saudi Aramco has lowered its January oil prices for buyers in Asia, Bloomberg reports, citing the company.

“Saudi Arabia is cutting oil prices for buyers in Asia more than expected after OPEC+ delayed a production restart, underscoring that the market outlook remains weak,” the agency wrote.

Arab Light is now $0.9 a barrel above the Oman/Dubai basket for Asian buyers in January, compared with a premium of $1.7 a barrel in December, the report said. The company was expected to reduce the premium to $1, the material says. The company also lowered prices for the northwestern part of Europe and the Mediterranean, while keeping them unchanged for North America, the agency notes.

Last Thursday, an OPEC+ meeting was held, at which a decision was made on the alliance's oil policy for the coming year. As a result, the current quotas were extended until the end of 2026. Voluntary restrictions of 1.65 million barrels per day in several countries will also remain in force until this date. And it was decided to move the planned exit from the additional restrictions of 2.2 million barrels per day from January to April 2025. And now OPEC+ will leave them by the end of 2026 instead of September 2025.

Saudi Aramco is the national oil and gas company of Saudi Arabia, founded in 1933. The company is present in the world's three main energy markets: Asia, Europe and North America.