Middle East crude benchmark Dubai fell on Thursday as Vitol stepped up sales of partial cargoes to Total, PetroChina and Trafigura on the window.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

Cash Dubai’s premium to swaps fell 4 cents to $1.37 a barrel. ExxonMobil will deliver a May loading Upper Zakum cargo to PetroChina following the deals.

This brings the total number of cargoes delivered on window this month to 15 – including 11 Upper Zakum cargoes and two cargoes each of al-Shaheen and Oman. PetroChina and Total are the top buyers this month.

NEWS

U.S. crude oil stockpiles fell unexpectedly last week as refineries restarted operations after maintenance and imports fell to a two-year low, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

A U.S. government auction of oil and gas drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico generated $263.8 million in high bids, the most of any sale in the region for years and the first test of demand for investment since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. oil and gas activity stalled in the first quarter as production gains slowed and drillers’ outlooks turned negative, according to a survey released on Wednesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

Privately controlled Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp (ZPC), operator of China’s largest refinery, said on Thursday it has reached a strategic agreement with state refining giant Sinopec 600028 on the domestic marketing of its fuel.

Qantas Airways Ltd QAN and Airbus SE AIR will jointly invest A$2 million ($1.34 million) in a biofuel refinery being set up in Australia’s Queensland state that would convert agricultural by-products into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
Source: Reuters