Middle East crude benchmark premiums for Oman and Dubai extended gains on Friday, while that for Murban retreated.
Chinese refiner Rongsheng Petrochemical 002493.SZ has purchased a total of 2.65 million barrels of heavy crude oil from the Americas for February delivery, according to trade sources on Friday.
These include three Canadian crude cargoes of 550,000 barrels each, set to be exported from the Trans-Mountain pipeline (TMX), and 1 million barrels of Ecuadorian Oriente crude, sources said.
Vitol and BP BP.L each sold one cargo of Canadian Access Western Blend (AWB) crude, while ExxonMobil XOM.N will deliver one cargo of Kearl Lake crude, they said.
The TMX cargoes were sold at a discount of $4 a barrel to ICE Brent on cost-and-freight (C&F) basis, they said.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
Cash Dubai’s premium to swaps rose 19 cents to $0.87 a barrel, a three-week high.
Unipec and Reliance will both deliver a January-loading Upper Zakum crude cargo to TotalEnergies following the deals.
Shenghong will deliver a January-loading Upper Zakum crude cargo to Glencore following the deals.
Unipec and PTT will both deliver a January al-Shaheen crude cargo to TotalEnergies following the deals.
Unipec will deliver a January-loading Oman crude cargo to TotalEnergies following the deals.
PTT will deliver a January-loading Oman crude cargo to PetroChina following the deals.
NEWS
China’s crude oil imports are set to rebound in November after sharp price cuts boosted demand for Iraqi and Saudi oil, offsetting a drop in Iranian supply, according to analysts, traders and shiptracking data.
North Korea has likely received more than 1 million barrels of oil from Russia over an eight-month period this year in breach of U.N. sanctions, according to an analysis of satellite imagery published on Friday by UK-based Open Source Centre and the BBC.
Brazilian state-run oil firm Petrobras PETR4.SA approved on Thursday a payout of 20 billion reais ($3.4 billion) in extraordinary dividends to shareholders, and it lowered the minimum cash level required for its $111 billion strategic plan.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Siyi Liu in Singapore; Editing by Eileen Soreng)