SINGAPORE: Several Asian refiners bought November Saudi crude in the spot market as Saudi Arabia pushed to move more oil out of the Strait of Hormuz, sources with knowledge of the matter said.
Chinese state-owned and independent refiners bought at least 12 million barrels of Saudi crude on a delivered basis, three sources said.
Another two sources said Saudi has sold oil for November-loading on a delivered basis to refiners in India and Taiwan. Some of the delivered crude was priced at a premium of about USD20 a barrel to November official selling prices (OSPs), the people said.
The sales were made through a tender issued by state oil company Saudi Aramco last week as well as through private negotiations, they added. Saudi Aramco did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Saudi Arabia typically releases its OSPs at the beginning of each month and asks term buyers to nominate monthly volumes.
However, it has now shifted volumes via the Strait of Hormuz to spot sales instead because buyers refrained from chartering ships to load crude inside of the strait due to security risks amid the Iran war, two of the sources said.