Abu Dhabi National Oil Company lowered the price for its flagship Murban crude by $11.70 per barrel to $56.10 per barrel for February, the company said in a note to its customers. The UAE's largest producer followed Saudi Arabia's lead in offering discounts to buyers following the collapse of the Opec+ pact.
Adnoc, which currently prices its crude retroactively, had previously set the selling price for Murban, its main crude grade, at $67.80 per barrel in January.
"Adnoc has always sets a fair and reasonable retroactive price for its crude that is consistent with market conditions," the company told its clients in a statement.
"We can assure our customers that this practice will continue," it added.
The state-owned producer also cut its official selling prices for other crude grades for February.
The move mirrors action taken by Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil producer Saudi Aramco, which issued guidance to the market on Sunday that it would reduce its selling price to Asia by $4 to $6 per barrel, much higher than the cut of $2 per barrel expected by analysts prior to the Opec meeting in Vienna last week.
The move comes amid plans by Riyadh to significantly ramp up production to as much as 10.5 million barrels per day following the collapse of the Opec+ alliance consisting of Opec members and non-Opec countries led by Russia, who could not agree on a proposal to cut an additional 1.5 million bpd from global supply last week.
The discounts on Aramco’s Arab Light crude grade for Asian buyers are the steepest so far. Saudi Arabia also lowered the prices of its crude grade for customers in the US, Europe and the Mediterranean by up to $7 to $8 per barrel.
Oil prices crashed nearly 31 per cent during early trading hours on Monday, the steepest daily drop since the Gulf War in 1991. Brent, the most widely traded commodity, was down 21.45 per cent to $35.56 per barrel at 5.28pm UAE time, while West Texas Intermediate was down 21.27 per cent at $32.50 per barrel.
