Aramco Cuts Oil Pricing to Asia With Iran Set to Boost Exports

Aramco cut the premium for Arab Extra Light crude to Asia by 40 cents a barrel to $1.30 a barrel more than the benchmark, according to the statement. The company narrowed the discount for March sales of its Medium and Heavy grades to Asia, it said. Pricing is against the average of Oman and Dubai oil grades.

The company kept pricing for Light and Heavy crude to the U.S. unchanged for March, and raised Arab Medium by 10 cents a barrel to $1.25 a barrel less than the benchmark.

Buyers in Northwest Europe and the Mediterranean region will see wider discounts for Aramco’s Extra Light and Light grades, while Heavy barrels will cost more next month, according to the statement. The benchmark for the U.S. is the Argus Sour Crude Index and for European buyers it’s the ICE Brent weighted average.

- With assistance from Sharon Cho. To contact the reporter on this story: Anthony DiPaola in Dubai at adipaola@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nayla Razzouk at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net Claudia Carpenter, Bruce Stanley