Saudi Arabia significantly lowers official selling prices for consumers in Asia in November

Oil prices climbed significantly yesterday, Brent rising for a time by as much as 3% to reach just shy of $50 per barrel, while WTI achieved nearly $47 per barrel at its peak. Prices were given a boost not only by friendly equity markets but also by sharply rising prices for oil products. The gasoil price for example gained by almost 5%, notes Commerzbank. 

The fact that Saudi Arabia lowered its official selling prices considerably for Asian customers did not weigh on prices, on the other hand. The world's largest oil exporter is offering Arab Light oil in November at a discount of $1.6 per barrel as compared with the Oman/Dubai benchmark, which constitutes the highest discount since March. Asian customers were still having to pay a premium of $0.1 in October. 

The OSPs payable in November have also been lowered for consumers in the US as compared to the ASCI benchmark, albeit not quite as sharply as those for Asia. By contrast, customers in northwest Europe will actually have to pay somewhat more for Arab Light in November as compared with the Brent reference type than they did in October.