Saudi Arabia faces a difficult balancing act as it tries to work down excess global crude stocks while protecting relationships with important refining customers in the United States and Asia.

The crude oil contract for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped 56¢ on Mar. 20 to $48.22/bbl. The May contract fell by 40¢ to $48.91/bbl. The Brent crude contract for May on London’s ICE decreased 14¢ to $51.62/bbl. The June contract dropped 16¢ to $51.79/bbl. The gas oil contract settled at 458.50/tonne on Mar. 20, up $1.75. The average price for OPEC’s basket of benchmark crudes on Mar. 20 was $49.18/bbl, down 18¢.

Saudi Arabia leads countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in future energy investment.

Saudi Aramco is set to launch its first public bond sale, of around $2bn, as soon as this month, as it begins to tap local currency debt markets as part of a $10bn fundraising programme.

The nation’s $814 billion China Investment Corp. would be the principle investor in the planned flotation by Saudi Arabian Oil Co., according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. China National Petroleum Corp. may also invest in the IPO, they said. No formal agreement has been reached, according to the people.

Saudi Arabia has sought to boost oil sales to China, the world's second-largest oil market, after losing market share to Russia last year, by working mostly with China's top three state oil firms.

Trade between the countries fell overall last year as oil prices dropped. Japan's 2.1 trillion yen ($18.6 billion) in imports from Saudi Arabia in 2016, mostly oil and gas, dwarfed its exports of 546.3 billion yen ($4.8 billion).

Royal Dutch Shell plc ("Shell") today announces the signing of binding definitive agreements between SOPC Holdings East LLC (a U.S. downstream subsidiary of Shell) and Saudi Refining Inc. ("SRI") (a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Arabian Oil Company (“Saudi Aramco”)) on the separation of assets, liabilities and businesses of Motiva Enterprises LLC (“Motiva”), a 50/50 refining and marketing joint venture.

Saudi Arabian Oil Co., as it is formally called, is considering investments of as much as $5 billion in renewable energy, part of the kingdom’s effort to reduce the amount of oil feeding domestic energy needs.

World's top crude exporter Saudi Arabia cut April prices of light crude it sells to Asia for the first time in three months in a bid to shore up demand in an oversupplied market, trade sources said.