Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state oil company, will reduce crude oil supplies to Asian markets for the second consecutive month in April, reported Reuters.
This decision follows disruptions in trade through the Strait of Hormuz due to the ongoing conflict involving the US, Israel and Iran.
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Sources told the news agency that Aramco is supplying term customers with Arab Light crude only in April, shipped from Yanbu, a Saudi Arabian port on the Red Sea. The move tightens crude availability for Asian refiners and limits their refined product output.
Efforts are under way by Aramco to increase exports from Yanbu to mitigate the impact of the disruptions at Hormuz.
In a related development, a drone incident recently interrupted operations at Aramco’s SAMREF refinery in Yanbu, according to a report by Reuters.
The refinery, a collaboration between Aramco and ExxonMobil, experienced minimal damage from the attack, which followed a string of assaults on energy facilities in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
These incidents were reportedly reactions to US-Israeli strikes on Iranian installations, prompting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to issue an evacuation warning for several oil facilities across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar.
The warning came after an attack on Iran’s South Pars gas field, marking a significant escalation in the conflict involving the US and Israel.
Since the conflict led to Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz late last month, Yanbu has become one of the two primary export points for crude oil from Gulf Arab nations.
Normally, the strait, a narrow passage between Iran and Oman, is responsible for transporting around 20% of the global oil supply.
The other key export hub is the Fujairah port in the UAE, which has faced multiple attacks causing operational suspensions.
For the current month, Aramco aims to reach record export volumes, with Sinopec, China’s largest refiner, scheduled to load approximately 24 million barrels of Saudi crude from the Yanbu port.
Earlier this month, Aramco announced net income of $17.76bn (SR66.6bn) for the fourth quarter of 2025 (Q4 2025), a 20.5% drop from the $22.34bn reported in the same period in 2024.
The adjusted net income for Q4 2025 stood at $25.06bn, a 1.9% reduction compared to $25.54bn in the previous year.
Aramco attributed the decrease in net profit primarily to higher operating expenses.
However, the impact was partially offset by lower income tax and zakat charges, which were a result of decreased taxable earnings.
