Middle East crude benchmarks Oman, Dubai and Murban edged lower on Monday, despite a flurry of purchases at the S&P Global Platts’ Market-on-Close platform.

The falling spot premiums came as the spread between Brent- and Dubai-pegged oil narrowed, which increased the economics of the arbitrage cargoes from the Atlantic Basin to Asian refiners.

The spread, known as Brent/Dubai EFS, was $0.87 a barrel on Monday, its narrowest level in one month.

Market participants remained waiting for top oil exporter Saudi Arabia to disclose its March official selling prices (OSPs) that is likely due later on Monday.

A Reuters survey last week showed that the market expected State oil giant Saudi Aramco 2222.SE to increase the OSP for its flagship Arab Light by about 55 cents a barrel.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

Cash Dubai’s premium to swaps dipped 12 cents to $0.88 per barrel.

NEWS

The European Commission will not add any new import bans in its next package of sanctions on Russia, EU diplomats said, as a 13th package proposal takes its final shape.

Venezuela’s exports of crude and refined products fell by 25% in January to some 624,000 barrels per day (bpd) as power outages hit the main oil export terminal, according to vessel tracking data and internal documents from state oil firm PDVSA.

QatarEnergy has signed a deal to supply Japan’s Mitsui & Co 8031.T with 11 million barrels of condensate per year for 10 years starting in April, Qatar’s state-owned energy company said on Sunday.

Two Ukrainian attack drones struck the largest oil refinery in southern Russia on Saturday, a source in Kyiv told Reuters, detailing the latest in a series of long-range attacks on Russian oil facilities.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Muyu Xu; Editing by Shweta Agarwal)