Nicosia - Saudi Aramco sharply raised all crude oil grade
prices for March deliveries to the United States by up to 2.30
dollars a barrel and to Europe by up to 1.45 dollars a barrel and
increased the price formula for most grades destined to Asia, the
Middle East Economic Survey reported Monday.
The Cyprus-based weekly publication said that while the increases
to western customers reflect stronger prices for sour crudes in the
US and Europe, the size of the rises was greater than customers
anticipated and was seen as an attempt to curb demand through pricing
at a time of OPEC production cutbacks.
For March deliveries to the US, where Saudi Aramco uses the West
Texas Intermediate benchmark as its pricing reference, all prices
were increased sharply, by 1.90 dollars a barrel for Arab Extra Light
and by 2.30 dollars a barrel for Arab Heavy.
For March deliveries to Europe, where Saudi Aramco uses the
International Petroleum Exchanges Brent Weighted Average (BWAVE)
quoted value as its pricing reference, prices were also raised across
the board from 1.20 dollars a barrel to 1.45 dollars a barrel.
The increase in Asia came in spite of a fall in sour crude spot
prices there and can be attributed to some extent to a rebound in
refining margins, the MEES report said.
For March deliveries to Asia, where Saudi Aramco uses the average
of the Oman and Dubai crude prices as its benchmark, price changes
were mixed, with three crudes raised by 20 cents a barrel to 90 cents
a barrel, the finer Arab Super Light was left unchanged and Arab
Extra Light was lowered by 15 cents a barrel.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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