Saudi crude oil prices for July raised for western buyers

Jun 11, 2007, 15:47 GMT

Nicosia Saudi Aramco raised all its July crude oil pricing formulas for the United States and Europe, but widened the light- heavy differential for deliveries to Asia, the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) reported Monday

The state-owned company's decision was based on the performance of competing products in the three regional markets, according to the Cyprus-based weekly publication.

MEES said that for July deliveries to the US, where Saudi Aramco uses the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) as its benchmark, prices were raised across the board 60 cents to 1.50 dollars a barrel.

For deliveries to Europe over the same month, prices were raised, by 10 to 90 cents a barrel, while for July deliveries to Asia, prices were mixed.

Arab Super Light was raised by 40 cents a barrel to a record premium against Oman and Dubai, while Arab Extra Light was increased by 25 cents a barrel and Arab Light was left unchanged. Arab medium and Heavy crudes were lowered by 15 cents and 30 cents a barrel, respectively.

Meanwhile, Gulf producers Abu Dhabi, Oman and Qatar raised their retrospectively-quoted price for May crude prices by ten to 89 cents a barrel.

Abu Dhabi raised the prices of its four main crudes by 70 and 80 cents a barrel to a range of 64.05 to 68.45 dollars a barrel, Oman upped its benchmark Ministry of Gas (MOG) crude by 72 cents a barrel to 64.17 dollars a barrel, and Qatar increased its Oman MOG-based formulas by 10 to 17 cents a barrel.

In actual prices, Qatars Dukhan and Marine crudes were up 89 cents and 82 cents a barrel, respectively, to 67.60 and 64.27 dollars a barrel, respectively.