Middle East crude benchmark Murban drifted lower on Wednesday amid declining refining margins for naphtha, while Oman and Dubai stayed steady.

Spot premium for the light sour crude from the UAE fell to a week low of $1.84 a barrel over the Dubai quotes after naphtha cracks dropped to negative $19.9 a barrel from negative $4.2 a barrel last week.

Murban is also under pressure from the falling premium of Brent futures against Dubai swaps, known as Brent/Dubai EFS, which would encourage Asian refiners to haul more oil from Americas, North Sea and West Africa.

The EFS is averaged at $0.92 a barrel by far this month, comparing to $1.11 a barrel in June.

ASIAN REFINERIES

Saudi Arabia’s major refiner Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Co (SATORP) plans to shut its Al Jubail refinery for maintenance starting end-September or first-half October, four sources with knowledge of the matter said.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

Cash Dubai’s premium to swaps gained 3 cents to $1.73 a barrel. PetroChina will deliver a September-loading Dubai crude cargo to Equinor following the trades.

NEWS
U.S. crude oil and gasoline inventories were seen down last week, while distillate stockpiles likely rose, an extended Reuters poll showed on Tuesday.

Australian fuel retailer Ampol Ltd ALD.AX saw its group total fuel sales volume rise by nearly a quarter in the first half and beat estimates on a key earnings metric, lifting its shares to their highest in nearly six weeks.

Brazilian state-run oil firm Petrobras PETR4.SA will double down on its strategy to maximize motor fuel from its local refineries even as it boosts imports of cheap Russian diesel, the company’s top executive told Reuters on Monday.

Full output has resumed at the Mongstad oil refinery in Norway, operator Equinor EQNR.OL said on Wednesday, following a partial outage on July 12 due to a lightning strike near the plant.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Muyu Xu; Editing by Shweta Agarwal)