Middle East crude benchmarks Oman, Dubai and Murban were little changed on Monday as the market downplayed the impacts of the persistent Red Sea conflicts and a drone attack at Russia’s Ust-Luga complex, a key fuel export terminal.

The escalation of the Red Sea tensions drove up tanker freight rates in early January as the market expected tighter shipping capacity. But the costs to haul crude oil are gradually coming down, with the rate for the Persian Gulf to Far East Asia down to Worldscale 130 from as high as Worldscale 140 last week.

Spot premium for light sour Murban crude edged lower, down 3 cents at $1.64 a barrel over Dubai quotes, as the spread between Brent- and Dubai-pegged oil narrowed following Libya’s lift of a force majeure on its largest oilfield.

Production at Libya’s 300,000 barrels-per-day Sharara oilfield restarted on Sunday, state oil company NOC said, after protesters ended a sit-in that had halted output since early January.

CHINA DATA

Russia leapfrogged Saudi Arabia to become China’s top crude oil supplier in 2023, data showed on Saturday, as the world’s biggest crude importer defied Western sanctions to purchase vast quantities of discounted oil for its processing plants.

Russia shipped a record 107.02 million metric tons of crude oil to China last year, equivalent to 2.14 million barrels per day (bpd), the Chinese customs data showed, far more than other major oil exporters such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
Imports from Saudi Arabia, previously China’s largest supplier, fell 1.8% to 85.96 million tons, as the Middle East oil giant lost market share to cheaper Russian crude.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

Cash Dubai’s premium to swaps rose 2 cents to $1.00 per barrel.

NEWS

Commercial production of diesel and gasoline at Mexico’s Olmeca refinery in Dos Bocas should reach “full capacity” by the end of March, the chief executive of state oil firm Pemex [RIC:RIC:PEMX.UL] said on Saturday, marking a pipeline months behind schedule.

Russian energy company Novatek NVTK.MM is likely to resume large-scale operations at its Ust-Luga processing complex and Baltic Sea terminal within weeks, after a fire started by what Ukrainian media said was a drone attack, analysts said on Monday.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) 2010.SE will go ahead with building a petrochemical complex in southeastern China’s Fujian province, the company said in an exchange filing on Sunday, shoring up Saudi ties with China, the world’s top oil importer.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Muyu Xu; Editing by Shweta Agarwal)