A new Saudi marketing technique

Aramco dips into the wild world of the spot market

SAUDI Arabia has been ripping up its own rulebook. In April, the kingdom sold a cargo on the Asian spot market to one of China’s independent refineries – the “teapots”. Throughout Ali al-Naimi’s tenure, the kingdom only sold to blue-chip buyers, and rarely on the spot market. The 0.73m-barrel cargo will be lifted from an Aramco facility in Japan’s Okinawa prefecture and shipped to Shandong, according to reports. It was sold to Shandong Chambroad Petrochemicals at a differential to the Oman/Dubai benchmark crude, though the exact price is unknown. It signals that the kingdom is expanding beyond its state-owned customers, catering for new buyers who want more flexibility. It’s also a recogniti