Saudi Arabia’s move to slash the price it charges in Asia for its oil this week to the lowest in more than a decade is the latest aggressive action by Gulf states to defend market share in the world’s top oil consuming region. A price war between producers has raged since Saudi Arabia and its Gulf OPEC allies last November chose to keep their taps open in a bid for market share over price, sending oil prices down more than a third to under $50 a barrel in just two months. Since then, Gulf producers – including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – have steadily increased shipments to Asia, helped by low production costs that allow aggressive discounts, at the expense of West African and Latin American supplies. Middle East exports to China, by far the region’s biggest importer, increased 2.5 percent to around […]