Saudi Arabia hiked official selling prices for all of its oil sales to Asian customers in May, days after the kingdom led a surprise OPEC+ output cut.
State-owned Saudi Aramco raised its selling price for flagship Arab Light crude to Asia by 30 cents a barrel, boosting prices for a third consecutive month, according to price sheets seen by Bloomberg. Traders who were surveyed before the shock OPEC+ decision had expected Arab Light prices to fall by 43 cents a barrel.
Oil rallied as much as 8.4% on Monday, the most in more than a year, after an unexpected decision by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies to cut more than 1 million barrels in daily output starting next month. Saudi Arabia, the cartel’s de facto leader along with Russia, agreed to slash production by 500,000 barrels a day.
