Saudi Aramco Changes Oil Prices

Saudi Aramco Cuts Oil Prices to U.S.; Raises for Asia, Europe
By Nesa Subrahmaniyan
Sept. 5 (Bloomberg)

Saudi Aramco, the world's largest state oil company, cut prices of its crude oil
to be exported to the U.S. in October. It raised prices for Asia and the
Mediterranean, while increasing for two grades to Europe.

Aramco cut
prices of its Arab Light, Arab Medium and Arab Heavy grades it sells to the U.S.
by between 5 cents and 90 cents a barrel, the Dhahran, Saudi Arabia-based
company said in a faxed statement today.

Prices to the U.S. are set
against the West Texas Intermediate benchmark. U.S. refiners would have to pay
minus $5.10 a barrel for Arab Light, minus $7.65 a barrel for Arab Medium and
minus $10 a barrel for Arab Heavy in October. The oil producer kept the discount
of its Extra Light grade unchanged to the U.S. at minus $2.65 a barrel.

For Asian customers, Aramco said it raised the prices of all its grades.
It raised Arab Super Light by 50 cents to a premium of $6.45 a barrel, and the
premium on Extra Light was increased 75 cents to $4.25 a barrel.

Aramco
boosted the premium on Arab Light by 60 cents to $1.35 a barrel, and narrowed
the discounts for Arab Medium by 30 cents to minus $1.05 a barrel and by 25
cents to minus $3.35 a barrel for its Arab Heavy grade. Asian prices are quoted
in relation to the average of Oman and Dubai grades, the two Arabian Gulf
benchmarks used by Asian oil refiners and traders.

Refiners in the
Mediterranean would have to pay more for most Saudi Arabian crude oil shipments
in October. The premium for Arab Extra Light was raised by 40 cents to $1.20 a
barrel, while the discounts for Arab Light and Arab Medium widened by 35 cents
and 5 cents to minus $2.15 a barrel and minus $3.65 a barrel. The discount for
Arab Heavy was cut further by 25 cents to $5.30 a barrel.

European
Prices

For its European customers, Aramco raised prices for shipments of
Arab Extra Light by 20 cents to $1.10 a barrel and narrowed the discount for
Arab Light by 15 cents to minus $2.45 a barrel, the oil producer said. The
discounts for Arab Medium and Arab Heavy grades were widened by 10 cents and 30
cents to minus $4.10 a barrel and minus $5.55 a barrel.

Mediterranean
and European prices are expressed as a differential to Intercontinental
Exchange's weighted average of North Sea Brent crude oil. All prices are
free-on-board, where the buyer has to pay for shipping costs.