Middle East crude benchmarks Oman and Dubai slipped for the first in five sessions after Unipec made its biggest single-day delivery of six cargoes this month.
Separately, Dubai has set its official crude differential for September at parity to DME Oman futures, the Dubai Department of Petroleum Affairs said on Thursday.
ASIA-PACIFIC CRUDE
Petronas has sold an August-loading Labuan crude cargo to PTT at about $8 a barrel above dated Brent, traders said.
Two crude cargoes loaded from China’s Penglai oilfields arrived at Singapore and Malaysia in May and June, Refinitiv data showed, an unusual export from the world’s largest crude importer.
The cargoes were likely to be blended with other oils to create low-sulphur fuel oil for ships, trade sources said.
RUSSIAN CRUDE
Russian Urals deliveries through transfers at sea near Greece’s Kalamata port rebounded in June after operations dried up in April as the grade traded below a Western oil price cap, prompting more activity, according to Refinitiv data and traders.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
Cash Dubai’s premium to swaps fell 11 cents to $1.78 a barrel.
Six cargoes were delivered by Unipec bringing its total tally to 37, or 18.5 million barrels.
The Chinese major delivered one Upper Zakum and five Oman cargoes to PetroChina, Totsa and Shell.
The tally for overall deliveries so far in June stand at 48 cargoes.
REFINERY
A fire on a reformer at Exxon Mobil Corp’s 564,440 barrel-per-day (bpd) Baytown, Texas, refinery was quickly extinguished on Wednesday, said people familiar with plant operations.
NEWS
U.S. crude oil refining capacity has reversed two years of declines and climbed by more than 100,000 barrels, to 18.1 million barrels per day (bpd), according to a government report released on Wednesday.
Shareholders of Cosmo Energy Holdings approved a “poison pill” takeover defence on Thursday, in a controversial vote that excluded certain activist shareholders and has implications for hostile takeover attempts in Japan.
Muted increases in U.S. oil production and cuts by the OPEC+ producing-nations group will limit crude supply in the months ahead, pushing up prices, an executive at U.S. shale producer EOG Resources said on Wednesday.
Source: Reuters