Saudi Aramco offers spot oil to Europe after pipeline restart
Investing.com -- Saudi Aramco has offered spot oil cargoes to European buyers for October and November, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. The move comes as the company works to compensate for supplies lost when a key export pipeline was shut down.
The state oil company offered shipments for late-October loading earlier this month and followed with additional supply for November pickup last week, the report noted. The October-loading cargoes were offered at a discount to Aramco's official selling price and were available for lifting from either the Mediterranean port of Sidi Kerir or from Yanbu on the Saudi Red Sea coast.
Aramco had previously informed European refiners they would not receive any cargoes under term contracts in October after an attack on its East-West pipeline disrupted exports from the Red Sea port of Yanbu. The pipeline has since restarted, allowing Aramco to increase exports and help ease tight market conditions in Europe.
The company is said to have also told European refiners this month they would receive their full allocations for November under term contracts.

The increased Saudi supply has reportedly contributed to lower prices for some oil grades in Europe this week.
Saudi Arabia typically exports an average of 700,000 to 800,000 barrels per day of crude to Europe, according to ship tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Most of the supply is under term contracts, but uncertainty over these shipments has pushed European refiners toward spot purchases.
Oil exports from the Middle East in general have risen to near prewar levels. Saudi Arabia boosted production by a third in September to over 8 million barrels per day, recovering from the lowest in more than three decades in the previous month. The UAE has pushed its output to a record high, according to the International Energy Agency, while Iraqi exports were also approaching levels from before the conflict.

