Oil found some support Thursday from an increase in Saudi Arabia’s crude prices for Asian buyers, which implied strength in crude demand. But a hefty rise in last week’s U.S. supplies and uncertainty surrounding tariff disputes helped weaken the outlook for crude demand.

Saudi Arabia hiked the price of its flagship crude to Asia by the most in more than two years as the kingdom responds to surging premiums for Middle Eastern crude and improving refinery margins.

Crude futures found some support in early trade after Saudi Arabia lifted prices for March loadings of all crude grades it exports amid surging premiums for Middle Eastern oil. State-owned oil giant Aramco's flagship Arab Light crude to Asia,

While addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos one day later, Trump said that he will ask MBS, whom he called a “fantastic guy”, to round up the $600bn pledge to “around $1trn”. Trump asserted that the Saudis would do this “because we’ve been very good to them”.

Saudi Arabia's economy returned to growth in 2024, with real gross domestic product increasing 1.3% compared to the previous year, preliminary government data released on Thursday showed, with non-oil sector activities lifting overall GDP.

State oil producer Saudi Aramco (TADAWUL:2222) has increased the price of its Arab Light oil to Asia for March by $2.40 a barrel. This adjustment, the largest since August 2022, surpasses the $2 increase that traders and refiners had anticipated,