Iraq raises Basrah crude price for Asia, follows Saudi lead
Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest producer, raised the selling price for February shipments to Asia of its main Basrah Light crude by 30 cents a barrel, after Saudi Arabia boosted its pricing to the region. Iraq set Basrah Light at a discount of $3.70 a barrel to the average of Middle Eastern benchmark Oman and Dubai grades, the […]Bruce Stanley reports for Bloomberg:
Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest producer, raised the selling price for February shipments to Asia of its main Basrah Light crude by 30 cents a barrel, after Saudi Arabia boosted its pricing to the region. Iraq set Basrah Light at a discount of $3.70 a barrel to the average of Middle Eastern benchmark Oman and Dubai grades, the country’s Oil Marketing Co. said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. The announcement followed increases Jan. 5 by Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, for its main grades to Asia. Iran raised its February prices to Asia last week.
The Basrah Light discount for February, while narrower than the January discount of $4 a barrel, was greater than for any other month since at least August 2003, when Bloomberg began compiling data.
