Saudi will only freeze its oil output if Iran does the same, top official says

Saudi Arabia would only freeze its oil output If Iran did the same, one of the highest ranking Saudi officials said.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Saudi deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman said "if all countries agree to freeze production, we will be among them".

When queried whether Iran was among the countries he had in mind he answered "without doubt".

His response sent crude oil prices sharply lower.

As of 16:12BST front month Brent crude oil futures were falling 4.239% to $38.69 per barrel on the ICE and those for West Texas Intermediate by 3.874% to $36.91.

Government and tanker tracking data published on Thursday showed Iranian oil exports to Asia jumped nearly a quarter from a year ago to a two-year high in February.

Iran’s exports increased 24.6% year-on-year to 1.28m barrels per day to its main buyers in China, India, Japan and South Korea.

The latest monthly survey conducted by Reuters, which was published earlier in the same week, also revealed rising levels of oil production in Iran and near-record exports from southern Iraq.

A bounce in the greenback following the release of the US employment report for March may also have added to the selling pressure in the oil complex.

As of 16:31BST Bloomberg´s spot US dollar index was 0.36% higher to 94.922.