Saudi Arabia Thursday Announce Crude prices to Asian buyers hit record highs. The remarkably high growth of 50 cents a barrel was still below some forecasts, which expected as high as $1.50 a barrel.
Bloomberg News Assumption The Saudis trimmed their Asian price increase to 50 cents amid an unexpected drop in U.S. demand for oil amid less summer driving. In fact, the latest survey shows that Americans are driving even less than they did at the height of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
Saudi Aramco also raised U.S. oil prices by 50 cents a barrel, part of a humiliating rebuke of the Biden administration’s demands for more production to lower U.S. oil prices. The Saudis have boosted output by one of the smallest margins in Aramco’s history and raised prices.
Asia is Saudi Arabia’s largest oil market, and its top four customers are China, India, South Korea and Japan. China and India are the fastest growing fossil fuel markets in the world, Accounting most of the increase in global energy demand.
Saudi oil prices to Asia have been Increase It’s been fairly steady since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in part because some of Russia’s regional oil customers have become wary of doing business with it. Asian buyers were willing to digest higher prices as their refineries posted record profits.
Meanwhile, despite these reluctant buyers, Russia’s oil business is doing well as China and India have an insatiable appetite for Russian crude. As a key strategic ally of the United States, India knows that the United States is unlikely to interfere in its purchases of heavily discounted Russian oil.
