Saudi Arabian Oil Co. raised differentials used to determine official selling prices for June shipments from Egypt’s Sidi Kerir port on the Mediterranean Sea, two people familiar with the pricing decision said.

The state-owned producer, known as Saudi Aramco, narrowed the discount on its Arab Light crude by 75 cents a barrel, to $1.75 less than the Brent weighted average posted by Intercontinental Exchange Inc., according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. Arab Extra Light was set at a 65 cent premium to the benchmark, a 20 cent increase from the May price formula, the people said.

Aramco, the world’s largest crude exporter, yesterday said it was raising differentials used to determine the June prices for all grades to be shipped to customers in the U.S., northwest Europe and the Mediterranean and cutting those to Asia.

The following table gives differentials for the four grades from Sidi Kerir in the Mediterranean in relation to benchmark prices, the month-on-month changes and the degrees of gravity as defined by the American Petroleum Institute. Prices are in U.S. dollars a barrel.
Sidi Kerir
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Variety        API        June           May           Change
Extra Light    38.5     +0.65          +0.45          +0.20
Arab Light     32.5     -1.75          -2.50           +0.75
Arab Medium   31      -3.10          -3.95           +0.85
Arab Heavy     27      -5.30          -6.20           +0.90
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Prices for Sidi Kerir shipments are expressed as a differential against the Brent weighted average, or BWAVE, on a free-on-board basis.

Source: Bloomberg