Saudi Arabia has increased the oil prices it sells to Asian countries and the USA.

This indicated that Saudi Arabia expects strong demand to continue despite the spread of the Omicron variant.

This step comes after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, a group of 23 countries led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, and its partners (OPEC+) surprised the market by deciding to increase production.

State-owned oil production company Saudi Aramco announced in a statement that January prices for all kinds of oil to be sold to Asia and the USA were increased.

The company has raised the price of its key product by 60 cents from December for its Asian customers, above $3.30 a barrel for benchmark oil.

This marks the highest level since February 2020, when the pandemic first hit hard.

Prices for the US were increased by 40 cents to 60 cents. Prices will be lowered for Europe, which is a relatively small market for Aramco.