Against the background of extreme volatility in international oil prices and unprecedented market uncertainty, Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco), the world’s largest oil exporter, announced on March 9 that it would break its long-standing sales practice dominated by long-term contracts and rarely sell crude oil through spot market tenders, triggering a shock in the global oil trade pattern.

It is understood that the crude oil sold by Saudi Aramco through spot tenders this time includes its flagship Arab Light crude oil, as well as three grades of extra light oil and heavy oil, with a total listed volume of about 4.6 million barrels. This operation is completely different from Saudi Aramco’s traditional strategy of relying almost entirely on long-term agreements to stably supply global customers in the past.

Market analysis believes that Saudi Aramco’s shift is a flexible strategic adjustment to cope with the current extreme market volatility. On the one hand, through spot tenders, Saudi Aramco can maximize its crude oil export revenue according to real-time market conditions; on the other hand, this move also sends a signal to the market that Saudi Arabia will actively participate in and stabilize global crude oil supply, helping to ease market panic about supply shortages.

In addition, this change may also reshape the pricing mechanism of global oil trade. For a long time, Saudi crude oil, as a global benchmark, its Official Selling Price (OSP) has a huge impact on the market. Increasing the proportion of spot sales means that spot market prices will play a more important role in global trade, and market pricing will be more transparent and market-oriented. This move also forces other oil-producing countries to re-examine their sales strategies, and the competition and game of global oil trade may enter a new stage.