Saudi Arabia raised oil prices

Saudi Arabia announced that it will increase the price of oil it sells to its customers in Asia, the USA, and Europe as of March after Brent oil prices approached the level of $95 per barrel.

Saudi national oil company Saudi Aramco will increase the price of oil it sells to US customers by 30 cents a barrel, while European customers will pay between 70 cents and $2.30 per barrel. The price of oil per barrel sent to far eastern countries was increased by 30–70 cents.

Aramco increased the price of Arab Light oil to $2.80 a barrel, up 60 cents from February. This increase was largely in line with analyst expectations.

Since the beginning of 2022, the price of a barrel of Brent oil has gained close to 20 percent and exceeded the level of 93 dollars. Despite the rapid spread of the Omikron variant, the strong course of demand was effective in driving the rise.

In addition, oil inventories are below last year's levels, and major producers are struggling to produce more. A few days before Aramco's decision, OPEC+ countries decided to increase their daily oil production by 400 thousand barrels for the next month. Vitol Group Asia Director, Mike Muller said, "Aramco says it can't find enough demand in Asia." And he predicted oil prices could rise even higher.