Saudi to lift Dec oil supply to some Asia refiners

Tokyo/Singapore, Nov 13: Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia will increase crude sales to several top Asian refiners in December, apparently rolling back part of the cuts it imposed this month under an OPEC accord, industry sources said on Monday.

State oil firm Saudi Aramco has notified two refiners in Japan that it will supply them about 4-5 percent less crude than stipulated under their annual contract, a shallower cut than November's 7-8 percent reduction, the sources said.

''The reduction in volumes is smaller for December than November,'' one of the sources told Reuters.

A refinery in Taiwan received a similar notice, a source said, although one refiner in South Korea will continue to receive steady supplies compared to this month.

Saudi Aramco normally cuts all Asian customers by about the same percentage. Asian refiners buy about half of the kingdom's over 7 million barrels per day (bpd) of exported crude.

The apparent increase in exports comes despite talk from many in OPEC -- including Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi -- that a further reduction in supplies may be necessary when the group meets on Dec. 14 to address swollen crude inventories.

The kingdom has shouldered the bulk of OPEC's 1.2 million bpd cut agreed in Doha last month and moved swiftly to notify its customers of its 380,000 bpd share of the cut-backs, although many other members have yet to make their curbs clear.

Asian lifters of Saudi crude were estimated to have been cut by up to 280,000 bpd. Reversing about 3 percentage points of those curbs could restore as much as 105,000 bpd of supply.

Reuters