Saudi Arabia raised official crude price

• Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude exporter, has raised prices for April oil sales to Asia, through Saudi Aramco, the state owned oil producer.

• The price hike came even some of the cargoes remain unloaded according to platts.

• Aramco has been lowering its prices steadily since June 2014 as producers across globe scrambled to hold on to market share following a roughly 50% drop in benchmark crude prices. This would be the first hike since then. The raise was higher than market expectation as surveyed by platts.

• Saudi Aramco said in a statement on Tuesday that it would raise its official price for Arab Light crude by $1.40 to its customers in Asia. Asia is the largest market for Aramco where it receives almost 50% of the orders.

• Aramco also raised prices for other oil grades for Asia as well as to the US.

• This could provide early indication that either the fight for market share is coming to an end or the demand is growing back. This could reduce the selling pressure on crude even if doesn't prompt a reversal.

Brent crude, the north sea benchmark, is up 2 per cent at $61.2/barrel.