Saudi Arabia raises Sept light crude prices for Asia less than expected

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia raised the price for the flagship Arab light crude it sells to Asia in September for the first time in three months, while cutting prices to the other regions.

The official selling price for Arab Light crude to Asia rose by 20 cents to $2 a barrel above the Oman/Dubai average in September, Saudi Aramco said in a statement on Sunday. The price was a two-month high, but the hike was less than the market had expected.

The producer also raised prices for other light grades sold to Asia but kept Arab Medium and Arab Heavy crude prices unchanged.

Refining sources in Asia had expected Saudi Aramco to raise prices for all crude grades by at least 50 cents a barrel in September from August to track gains in Middle East benchmark Dubai last month, according to a Reuters survey.

The smaller-than expected price hikes were likely due to weak refining margins in Asia and as negotiations for annual term supplies are approaching, a Singapore-based trader said.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia cut prices for other regions, with deep reductions of $2.75 a barrel across all of its crude grades for Northwest Europe and the Mediterranean.

A meeting of top OPEC+ ministers on Thursday kept the oil exporting group's output policy unchanged, including a plan to start unwinding one layer of output cuts from October, and repeated that the move could be paused or reversed if needed.

OPEC+ is currently cutting output by a total of 5.86 million barrels per day, or about 5.7% of global demand, in a series of steps agreed since 2022 to bolster the market amid uncertainty over global demand and rising supply outside the group.

State-owned Aramco sets its crude prices based on recommendations from customers and after calculating the change in the value of its oil over the past month, based on yields and product prices.

(Reporting by Hatem Maher, Adam Makary and Florence Tan; Editing by Paul Simao and Sonali Paul)