SINGAPORE, Sept 12 (Askume) – Saudi Arabia will raise crude supply to China by 46 million barrels in October after the world’s top oil exporter slashed prices in Asia to boost demand, trade sources said on Thursday.
He said China’s biggest refiners Sinopec (600028.SS) and PetroChina (601857.SS) were demanding higher crude loadings in October, while demand from private refiners Rongsheng Petrochemical and Hengli Petrochemical remained stable.
October output exceeded the 43 million barrels that Chinese refiners had expected to get in September .
Demand from the world’s biggest importer surged as state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco cut its official selling price for October for Arabian light crude, a key oil shipped to Asia, to the lowest in nearly three years.
Saudi Arabia is China’s second-largest crude oil supplier after Russia. However, Chinese customs data shows Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports to China fell 10.3% to 46.79 million tonnes (1.61 million barrels per day) in the first seven months of this year compared with the same period last year.
