Middle Eastern benchmarks climbed on Thursday, as volatile price swings prevailed on relatively thin holiday liquidity in the broader spot market.

Dubai’s differential to swaps had fluctuated between premiums and discounts in the past two weeks.

Meanwhile, Qatar has agreed to supply Shell in Singapore with up to 18 million barrels of oil a year for five years.

The Gulf state’s energy company said this was its first five-year crude sales deal.

The supply will include both Qatar Land and Qatar Marine crude oils, starting in January.

Oil output in Russia, the third largest producer in the world after the United States and Saudi Arabia, is expected to be steady or even to increase next year as Moscow has largely overcome Western sanctions, analysts said.

U.S. crude stockpiles were expected to have fallen last week, while distillate and gasoline inventories likely rose, an extended Reuters poll showed on Wednesday.

Denmark’s Maersk has scheduled several dozen container vessels to travel via the Suez Canal and the Red Sea in the coming days and weeks, it said on Wednesday, in a further sign that global shipping firms are returning to the route.

Diesel supply in Asia is set to jump in 2024 fueled by new refineries in the Middle East and robust exports from China, and is likely to outpace the region’s world-leading demand growth, analysts and trade sources said.

Adani Energy Solutions plans to spend $360 million to build a transmission line to connect a solar and wind energy park in the western Indian state of Gujarat with the power grid.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Florence Tan and Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)