By Giulia Petroni
Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, sharply cut the price of its flagship crude grade for Asian buyers as Gulf supplies return to the global market and tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz normalizes.
State producer Saudi Aramco lowered the official selling price for August shipments of its Arab Light crude to Asia--the largest market for Middle Eastern oil--by $11 a barrel to a discount of $1.50 a barrel to the Oman/Dubai benchmark, down from a premium of $9.50 a barrel for July cargoes.
Official selling prices are monthly rates set by national oil companies for term-contract customers and are typically pegged to regional crude benchmarks. The prices reflect demand from refiners and competition among exporters, making them a closely watched gauge of market conditions in key consuming regions.
Aramco also cut prices for its other crude grades sold to Asia by $11 a barrel. Prices for grades sold to Northwest Europe and the Mediterranean were reduced by $15 a barrel, while U.S. customers saw an $8-a-barrel decrease.
Giulia Petroni at giulia.petroni@wsj.com