沙特对亚洲降低油价 捍卫减产后市场份额

据世界石油4月14日新加坡报道，沙特刚刚签署的可能是历史上最著名的石油产量协议之一，但由于沙特面临着来自竞争对手的激烈竞争，在这个宝贵的亚洲市场，未来的挑战依然存在。

这或许可以解释，为何欧佩克的实际领导者本周大幅下调了5月份对亚洲客户的官方售价，幅度超出预期。接受彭博社调查的11家亚洲炼油商中，有8家对沙特阿美激进的营销策略表示欢迎，其余3家表示，它们预计降价幅度会更大。

尽管价格战在上周末得以平息，但我们没有理由认为，随着疫情继续抑制需求，涌入亚洲的廉价原油洪流将迅速消退。近几周，俄罗斯的乌拉尔、美国的玛氏和几个阿布扎比等级的原油品种开始向买家供应，交货日期灵活，因为交易商将装满未售出原油的超级油轮运往亚洲。

沙特阿美将其5月份面向亚洲客户的旗舰产品阿拉伯轻质原油的官方售价较上月下调了4.20美元/桶，降幅超出了预期的3.63美元/桶。这是在它与其他生产商签署了一项协议，将全球产量削减约10%以试图支撑价格之后。

据不愿透露姓名的交易商称，仅西非就有约2,000万桶4月份装运的原油未售出。他们表示，这是5月份该地区未售出的货物供应的总和，估计至少是上个月的三倍。

三家独立交易商称，中东地区非沙特产油国的原油也有供应，阿曼和上扎库姆等不同等级的原油以灵活的方式供应，允许买家选择他们的理想交货期。

除了供应过剩，沙特阿美和其他公司还在努力应对需求持续萎缩的问题，尤其是在印度，该国已实施了全球规模最大的封锁。伊拉克本周早些时候表示，由于供应过剩、油价下跌以及该国石油部长所称的全球炼油业“衰退”，该国在原油营销方面遇到了困难。

亚洲炼油商必须在本周中旬之前决定从沙特阿美购买的石油量。科威特、伊拉克和阿布扎比等其它产油国将很快发布官方售价。

裘寅 编译自 世界石油

原文如下：

Saudi discounts oil to Asia, defending market share after OPEC+ cuts

Saudi Arabia might have just signed off on one of the most notable oil output deals in history, but challenges lie ahead as the kingdom faces keen competition from rival suppliers to the prized Asian market.

That perhaps explains why the de-facto leader of OPEC slashed its official selling prices to Asian customers for May by larger-than-expected margins this week. Eight of eleven refiners across the region surveyed by Bloomberg welcomed Saudi Aramco’s aggressive marketing strategy, while the remaining three said they had expected even steeper discounts.

Despite the price war being defused over the weekend, there’s no reason to think that the deluge of cheap crude washing over Asia will ebb quickly as the coronavirus continues to depress demand. Varieties such as Russia’s Urals, Mars from the U.S. and several Abu Dhabi grades crude were being offered in recent weeks to buyers on a delivered basis with flexible arrival dates as traders moved supertankers filled with unsold oil toward Asia.

Aramco cut the May official selling price of its flagship Arab Light crude to Asian customers by $4.20 a barrel from the previous month, exceeding estimates for a reduction of $3.63. That was even after it signed a deal with other producers to cut global output by around 10% to try and support prices.

Strong Competition. About 20 million barrels of April-loading crude remains unsold from West Africa alone, according to traders who asked not to be identified. That’s on top of unsold May-loading supplies from the region that are estimated to be at least triple that of the month before, they said.

Crude from non-Saudi producers in the Middle East is also available with grades including Oman and Upper Zakum being offered on a flexible basis, allowing buyers’ to pick out their preferred arrival periods, three separate traders said.

As well as the supply glut, Aramco and others are grappling with demand that’s continuing to shrivel, particularly in India, which has enforced the world’s biggest lockdown. Iraq said earlier this week that it had trouble marketing its crude amid the supply glut, lower prices and what the country’s oil minister called a “recession” in refining around the world.

Refiners in Asia have until the middle of this week to decide on the amount of oil they want to buy from Aramco. Other producers such as Kuwait, Iraq and Abu Dhabi are set to issue their official prices shortly.