Category: Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia cut pricing for November oil sales to Asia and the U.S. as the world’s largest crude exporter seeks to keep its barrels competitive with rival suppliers amid sluggish demand. Saudi Arabian Oil Co. reduced its official selling price for Medium grade crude to Asia next month to a discount of $3.20 a barrel below the regional benchmark, compared with a $1.30 discount for October sales, the company said Sunday in an e-mailed statement. The discount for the Medium grade to Asia, the main market for Saudi crude, widened by the most since the state-owned company made a $2 a barrel cut in February 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Brent crude, a global benchmark, tumbled almost 50 percent last year as Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members chose to protect market share instead of decreasing output to boost prices. Brent fell from more than $100 a […]

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Saudi Arabia’s oil minister Ali al-Naimi on Friday said the world’s biggest crude exporter would continue investing in the oil and gas industry despite the drop in prices, state media reported. The kingdom will also invest in other energy resources such as solar power, the minister said in Turkey at a meeting of the G-20 energy ministers, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. “Since the 1970s this industry has been experiencing sharp fluctuations in prices—up and down—which have impacted investments in the field of oil and energy, and its continuity," Mr. Naimi said. “This volatile situation is neither in the interest of the producing nor consuming countries, and the G-20 countries can contribute to the stability of the market,” he added, according to SPA. Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have increasingly asked other countries such as Russia to reduce their […]

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Saudi Arabia’s state-owned Saudi Aramco is expected to announce sharp cuts in its official selling price differentials for light and heavier grades loading in November for Asian buyers, reflecting lower spot differentials last month and steeper contango in the Dubai market structure. Traders surveyed by Platts expect Aramco to lower the November OSP differential for Arab Light crude by $1-$2/b from October’s OSP of 10 cents/b over Platts Oman/Dubai average. A majority expect cuts between $1.50-$2/b in the Arab Light OSP differential. The first-month/third-month spread for Dubai crude averaged at minus $2.24/b last month, with the contango widening by $2.59/b from August. The Dubai market structure is understood to be a key component in the Saudi Aramco OSP calculations. Traders said Aramco may not fully reflect the weakness in the Dubai structure, especially after it cut its October OSP last month despite a stronger Dubai structure in August. Article […]

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On Tuesday 22 September, Middle East Eye broke the story of a senior member of the Saudi royal family calling for a “change” in leadership to fend off the kingdom’s collapse. In a letter circulated among Saudi princes, its author, a grandson of the late King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, blamed incumbent King Salman for creating unprecedented problems that endangered the monarchy’s continued survival. “We will not be able to stop the draining of money, the political adolescence, and the military risks unless we change the methods of decision making, even if that implied changing the king himself,” warned the letter. Whether or not an internal royal coup is round the corner – and informed observers think such a prospect “fanciful” – the letter’s analysis of Saudi Arabia’s dire predicament is startlingly accurate. Like many countries in the region before it, Saudi Arabia is on the brink of a perfect […]

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Saudi Arabia has withdrawn as much as $70 billion from global asset managers as OPEC’s largest oil producer seeks to plug its budget deficit after crude slumped, according to financial services market intelligence company Insight Discovery. "Fund managers we’ve spoken to estimate SAMA has pulled out between $50 billion to $70 billion from global asset managers over the past six months," Nigel Sillitoe, chief executive officer of the Dubai-based firm, said by telephone Monday. "Saudi Arabia is withdrawing funds because it’s trying to cut its widening deficit and it’s financing the war in Yemen," he said, declining to name the fund managers. Saudi Arabia is seeking to stem a decline in its finances after a 50 percent drop in oil during the past 12 months. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority’s reserves held in foreign securities have fallen about 10 percent from a peak of $737 billion last August to […]

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Photo Emergency workers at the site of a stampede in Mina, outside the Muslim holy city of Mecca, on Thursday. Credit Saudi Civil Defense, via Reuters BEIRUT, Lebanon — At least 310 people were killed, and 450 were injured, in a stampede near Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday. The deaths occurred on the first day of Eid al-Adha, one of the holiest holidays in the Muslim calendar, and as millions of Muslims were making their pilgrimage, or hajj, to Mecca. Saudi civil defense authorities confirmed the deaths on Twitter and said that two medical centers had been opened in Mina to treat the injured. More than 4,000 emergency workers were sent to the scene, and hundreds of people were taken to four hospitals. The stampede occurred less than two weeks after a large construction crane toppled and crashed into the Grand Mosque in Mecca, killing at least 111 people […]

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Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi talks to journalists before a meeting of OPEC oil ministers in Vienna, Austria, June 5, 2015. Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports dipped by 89,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July, while volumes used by local refineries and the country’s refined products shipments rose from a month earlier, official data showed on Sunday. The world’s biggest crude exporter trimmed its production by around 200,000 bpd in July pumping 10.361 million bpd, but Riyadh shows no signs of wavering on its strategy of defending market share and feeding a growth in global as well as domestic demand. The OPEC heavyweight shipped 7.276 million bpd in July down from 7.365 million bpd in June, figures published by the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI) showed. Monthly export figures are provided by Riyadh and other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to JODI, which […]

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