More Stories

Informist, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026

NEW DELHI – Saudi Arabia has again cut the official selling price of its flagship Arab Light crude to Asia, making the third consecutive monthly reduction amid ample market supply and soft demand. For February loading cargoes, Saudi Aramco has set the Arab Light price at $0.30 per barrel above the regional benchmarks, down from $0.60 premium for January, and the lowest premium in over five years.

 

Saudi Aramco also lowered prices of its barrels across all grades to every other region, including the US and Europe. Saudi Arabia is the largest crude oil exporter and its reductions may prompt other West Asian oil producers to reduce their quotations, according to analysts. 

 

"Saudi Arabia is apparently only able to bring the higher export volumes onto the market at reduced selling prices, which indicates that demand is subdued. The other OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) countries are also likely to adjust their selling prices downwards in the coming days, as Saudi Arabia usually sets the tone for pricing," Commerzbank said in a note.

 

"The last time the price premium was lower than next month was five years ago, during the coronavirus pandemic. Back then, OSPs (official selling price) were even significantly negative in some cases," it added. 

 

The price cuts come against the backdrop of ample supplies in the international market. In December, the International Energy Agency forecast global oil supply to increase by 3 million barrels per day in 2025 and by 2.4-2.5 million barrels per day in 2026. 

 

Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley expects the surplus to widen to as much as 3 million barrels in the first half of 2026, driven by strong production. At 1853 IST, the most-active March contract of crude oil on the NYMEX was down nearly 0.1% at $57.09 per barrel. End

 

Reported by Afra Abubacker

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.