Despite a slowdown in fuel demand due to the Delta variant, Asian refiners have booked more crude oil from the United States for the fourth quarter, taking advantage of the lower U.S. benchmark prices than last month, traders told Bloomberg on Friday. Refiners in Asia seek cheaper crude, especially after Saudi Aramco raised last week its official selling prices for crude oil loading for Asia in September to the highest premiums to benchmarks since February 2020. Since other major Middle Eastern producers follow the trends in Saudi pricing, other oil exporters in the Gulf also raised their prices. Signs have already emerged that some Asian refiners have asked for lower Saudi crude volumes for September. Some Asian refiners have nominated lower than usual volumes of crude oil from Saudi Arabia as authorities in China and the rest of Asia have reimposed restrictions to fight the Delta variant surge, officials […]