REUTERS

Saudi Aramco, the world’s top oil exporter, on Monday raised crude prices for Asian buyers in February for the first time in three months, after Opec+ extended production cuts for another three months and as Russian and Iranian supplies fell.

Aramco raised the official selling price (OSP) for flagship Arab Light crude by 60 cents to $1.50 per barrel above the Oman/Dubai benchmark average, a pricing document from the producer showed.

This was up from a premium of 90 cents a barrel in January, which is a four-year low.

The company also hiked prices for other grades it sells to Asia.

Aramco raised February prices for buyers in northwest Europe and the Mediterranean by $1.30 a barrel for all crude grades, but cut the OSPs for grades it sells to the US by 30-40 cents a barrel.

The hike in Arab Light price for Asia was slightly higher than the 20-50 cent increase forecast in a Reuters survey of six Asian refining sources.

Two traders attributed the larger-than-expected increase to the sharp rise in spot premiums during the last week of December.

Last month, spot premiums for February-loading Middle East grades recovered after hitting their lowest in a year in the previous month, driven by uncertainty over Iranian and Russian supplies.

The price of Iranian crude sold to China has risen to the highest in years as fresh US sanctions have tightened shipping capacity and driven up logistics costs. In India, state refiners such as Bharat Petroleum Corp are buying more Middle East crude to make up for lower supply of cheaper Russian oil.