Saudi Aramco raises all Asia-bound May OSPs, cuts most US and Europe OSPs

Singapore — Saudi Aramco raised official selling prices for all its Asia-bound crude grades while cutting prices for most US and Europe bound crude grades, the company said in a notice on April 4.

For Asia crude, the May differentials against Dubai/Oman for Saudi Light was raised by 40 cents and Medium and Heavy by 50 cents from April levels.

This was largely in line with a stronger market structure for benchmark Dubai in March. Cash Dubai's premium to front-month Dubai futures – understood to be a key component in OSP calculation – averaged $1.19/b in March, up 50 cents from February.

For US-bound crude, differentials for Saudi Light, Medium and Heavy grades were cut by 10 cents/b, while the differential for Extra Light grade was raised by 10 cents/b from its April OSP.

The May OSPs for Northwest Europe were kept unchanged for the Extra Light, Medium and Heavy grades from April, while the OSP for the Arab Light grade was cut by 20 cents/b, pricing against ICE Brent.

Similarly, for crude destined for Mediterranean, the OSPs for the Extra Light and Light crude grades were slashed by 30 cents/b and 20 cents/b, respectively, while OSPs for the Medium and Heavy grades were unchanged from the April OSP.

Post the OPEC+ meet last week, Saudi Arabia and the other alliance members agreed to ease production cuts gradually and raise their oil production quotas over the next three months, four sources involved in the April 1 talks told S&P Global Platts.

Additionally, Saudi Arabia said it will unwind its voluntary 1 million b/d in extra cuts by 250,000 b/d in May, 350,000 b/d in June and 400,000 b/d in July.