Middle East crude benchmarks Dubai and Murban edged lower on Tuesday as the Red Sea tensions could dent demand from European refiners.
The spread between Brent- and Dubai-linked grades continued to widen on Tuesday, pegging at $1.4 a barrel, compared with $1.25 in the previous session.
The intensifying Red Sea tensions could encourage European refiners to haul more oil from the Atlantic Basin and to buy less Middle Eastern crude to avoid the dangerous zones, resulting in stronger demand for West African crude and a capped appetite for Mideast oil, trading sources said.
But the Middle Eastern oil benchmarks remained supported by robust Chinese purchases.
Chinese refiners are actively booking crude oil cargoes for delivery in March and April to replenish stocks, locking-in relatively low prices and in anticipation of stronger demand in the second half of 2024, trade sources said.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
Cash Dubai’s premium to swaps dipped 4 cents to $1.01 per barrel.
ExxonMobil will deliver one March-loading Oman crude to Gunvor following the trades, marking the first convergence of January at the S&P Global Platts’ Market-on-Close.
NEWS
China’s oil products exports are set to rebound in January as refiners, armed with fresh quotas, boost diesel shipments and jet fuel sales for peak Lunar New Year travel, estimates from traders and analysts showed.
Four tankers used for shipments of Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) have resumed course after pausing for several days amid maritime attacks by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis in the Red Sea, LSEG shiptracking data showed on Tuesday.
Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which supplies Kazakhstan’s oil via a Black Sea terminal, said on Tuesday it planed to export more than 70 million metric tons (1.5 million barrels per day) of oil in 2024, up from a record high 63.5 million tons in 2023.
Spanish energy giant Repsol REP.MC faces a class action lawsuit with 30,000 alleged victims in Peru stemming from a major oil spill in 2022, the law firm representing the class said on Monday, as a small protest marked two years since the incident.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Muyu Xu; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)