Middle Eastern benchmarks Dubai and Murban edged higher on Thursday, as the Brent/Dubai EFS widened and Chinese refineries asked for lower supply for Saudi crude, indicating they have bigger capacity to take cargoes from other suppliers.
The Brent/Dubai Exchange for Futures for Swaps (EFS) was $0.35 a barrel, widened from $0.20 a barrel on Wednesday, which helped take away some pressures from the arbitrage cargoes on Mideast crude.
Spot premium for Dubai rose to $1.51 a barrel over the Dubai quotes, up 6 cents from the prior day, while Murban advanced 11 cents to $1.57 a barrel over the Dubai quotes.
Saudi Aramco 2222.SE has notified at least four North Asian buyers that it will supply full contractual volumes of crude oil in December, people with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.
But refiners in China, the largest buyer of Saudi oil, have slightly trimmed their nominated volume for December, totalling around 46 million barrels from 47 million barrels for November and around 50 million barrels for October, the sources said.
Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) ADNOC.UL has notified some term customers that it will reduce the volume of Upper Zakum crude oil supply in 2024, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
Cash Dubai’s premium to swaps rose 6 cents to $1.51 a barrel.
NEWS
International oil companies operating in Iraq’s semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan will not produce oil for pipeline exports until the issue of overdue payments estimated at nearly $1 billion is resolved, Norway’s DNO DNO.OL said on Thursday.
The government of Shandong province, China’s independent refinery hub, has asked Beijing for an extra 3 million metric tons of fuel oil import quotas for the rest of 2023 to enable plants to raise output amid a shortage of crude oil quotas, trading sources and a consultancy said.
India saved roughly $2.7 billion by importing discounted Russian oil in the first nine months of this year, according to calculations based on government data, helping it support economic growth and ease pressure on its trade deficit.
UBS on Thursday said it expects Brent crude prices to move back up towards the $90-$100 per barrel range despite recent weakness, citing tight supplies and rising global demand.
Russian oil refineries reduced crude oil processing volumes in October from September by around 1.2% on a daily basis to some 22.6 million metric tons, Reuters calculations based on data from two industry sources showed on Wednesday.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Muyu Xu; Editing by Varun H K)