Survey: Saudi Arabia May Raise its Oil Prices for Asia to Record Premiums

Asian refiners and traders expect top crude exporter Saudi Arabia to once again hike significantly the prices of its crude going to Asia in May to a record premium over the Middle Eastern benchmarks, a Bloomberg survey showed on Tuesday.

Per the Bloomberg survey of five traders and refiners, Saudi Arabia’s oil giant Aramco could increase its OSP for May for Asia for Arab Light—the Kingdom’s flagship grade—by a massive $5 per barrel to a premium of nearly $10 a barrel over the Oman/Dubai benchmark.

Earlier in March, Saudi Aramco lifted its April price to Asia for its flagship grade to $4.95 a barrel premium over Oman/Dubai, which was the largest ever premium of Arab Light to the Middle East benchmark.

The meeting of the OPEC+ group is scheduled for March 31, and producers have signaled they would keep the production plan as-is, that is, raising the OPEC+ collective production quota by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) for May.