Middle East crude benchmarks were mixed in the first trading session of July as market participants waited for Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, to issue its official oil selling prices (OSP) for August-loading cargoes.

Asian refiners expect Saudi Arabia to lower prices for its crude supply to the region in August, a Reuters survey showed, even as the top oil exporter pledged to deepen production cuts in July as part of a broader OPEC+ deal.

State oil company Saudi Aramco is expected to cut the OSP for Arab Light crude in August by about 50 cents a barrel from the prior month, according to the survey of six refining sources.

OPEC+

Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world’s biggest oil exporters, deepened oil cuts on Monday, sending prices higher despite concerns over a global economic slowdown and possible further interest rate hikes from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Saudi Arabia said it would extend its voluntary oil output cut of one million barrels per day (bpd) for another month to include August, adding that the cut could be extended beyond that month.

Shortly after the Saudi announcement, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Moscow would cut its oil exports by 500,000 barrels per day in August.

OSP

The official selling price of a basket of June-loading Malaysian crude oil (MCO) grades OSP/MY has been set at $80.60 a barrel, a price document issued by state oil company Petronas showed on Monday.

ASIAN REFINERIES

Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC) put out a fire at the al-Zour refinery without any reported injuries, a company spokesperson said on Monday.

NEWS

OPEC oil output has fallen only slightly in June as increases in Iraq and Nigeria limited the impact of cutbacks by others, despite a wider OPEC+ deal and voluntary cuts by several members to support the market, a Reuters survey found on Friday.

Indian refiners have begun paying for some oil imports from Russia in Chinese yuan, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said, as Western sanctions force Moscow and its customers to find alternatives to the dollar for settling payments.

China announced late on Friday that a series of fuel blending components would be subject to consumption tax with immediate effect, according to a joint statement of the Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Muyu Xu; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)