Chinese refiners will move less Saudi crude in June than in May, people with knowledge of the matter said Friday.
The supply reduction comes after Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest exporter, raised official sales prices for most of its crude oil to Asia to the highest in five months, despite weak profit margins. refining.
The volume of Saudi crude to be loaded for China is expected to decrease by 5.8 million barrels in June, compared to 45 million barrels in May, according to the sources.
The drop was due to a reduction in supply of 6.8 million barrels for public and private refiners, as well as an increase of 1 million barrels for one of the private refiners, the sources said.
The reductions mainly concerned medium Arabian crude and heavy Arabian crude, they said.
Chinese refiners are buying less Saudi crude due to high sales prices and low margins, two of the sources said. (Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
