Middle East crude benchmark spot premiums in Dubai and Murban declined on Friday, but logged weekly gains due to healthy summer demand and supply concerns in the Middle East.
Trading on the GME is closed on Friday because of the Independence Day holiday in the U.S.
Participants are awaiting Saudi Arabia’s August official selling prices, which are expected to rise to a four-month high.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
Cash Dubai’s premium to swaps fell 22 cents to $3.12 a barrel.
NEWS
The U.S. imposed sanctions on Thursday against a network that smuggles Iranian oil disguised as Iraqi oil and on a Hezbollah-controlled financial institution, the Treasury Department said.
Ecuadorean state oil company Petroecuador declared force majeure on all operations, including crude exports, after two key pipelines suspended pumping, the firm’s head said on Thursday.
At least nine people, including eight police officers and a fire-fighter, were injured on Friday after an explosion at a petrol station in the east of Rome, Italian authorities said.
Freight rates for ESPO Blend crude shipped from the Russian port of Kozmino to China fell to $1.9 million – the lowest level since December 2024 – on higher availability of tankers and lower June exports, three traders said on Thursday.
Source: Reuters