Saudi Arabia look to tighten their grip on market share with Iran set to start up oil exports
The WSJ report that the Saudi's cut the price of oil to Europe today via increased discounts in an effort to keep buyers away from Iranian oil that is expected to start being exported later this year
The discount to Northwest Europe increased by $0.60 per barrel, and by $0.20 for the Med
Spain and Italy were buying around 16% and 13% of their oil imports from Iran before the sanctions kicked in
It's a two fold move to keep market share and to have a snipe at Iran. Although the Iranians can't sell oil in the EU they have cut prices to the North West of Europe by 27% in the past year
Brent crude has slid very close to the 35.96 December lows as it currently trades at 36.23
On the other side of the fence, further increases in discounts via a price war are not going to do inflation any good in the EU
Full details from the WSJ here (may be gated)
