Spot premiums for Middle East crude benchmarks Oman, Dubai and Murban eased for a second straight session on Tuesday, while trades for September-loading cargoes are underway.
Unipec has bought three cargoes of Upper Zakum crude at premiums of between $1.65 and $1.70 a barrel above Dubai quotes, traders said.
Cosmo Oil and Hengyi Petrochemical bought one cargo of Das crude each at premiums between 80 and 90 cents a barrel to Dubai quotes, they added.
Spot premiums for September-loading cargoes have risen from the previous month after the widening of Brent’s premium to Dubai spread curbed arbitrage flows from the Atlantic Basin to Asia and buoyed demand for Middle East grades.
QatarEnergy is expected to award on Wednesday tenders to sell al-Shaheen, Marine and Land crude.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
Cash Dubai’s premium to swaps fell 8 cents to $1.72 a barrel.
ExxonMobile will deliver September-loading Upper Zakum crude cargo to Mitsui following the deals, the U.S. major’s second delivery this month.
REFINERY
Indonesian state energy company Pertamina expects its Balikpapan refinery’s CDU IV to resume operations later this month, an official at its refinery subholding PT Kilang Pertamina Internasional said on Tuesday.
Indian private oil refiner Nayara Energy is planning to shut a delayed coker and some other units at its refinery in Vadinar for maintenance for about three weeks from end-August or early September, three trading sources said.
NEWS
Yemen’s Houthis targeted three vessels, including an oil tanker, in the Red and Mediterranean seas with ballistic missiles, drones and booby-trapped boats, they said on Monday.
Exxon Mobil Corp XOM.N plans to drill up to 30 wells as part of its seventh oil project in Guyana, named Hammerhead, according to the development plan proposed by the company and disclosed by the government on Monday.
China’s state-owned oil and gas firm CNOOC 0883.HK said on Monday it achieved an exploration breakthrough in Bohai Bay, with a discovery well tested to produce about 210 cubic meters of crude oil and nearly 1 million cubic meters of natural gas.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Varun H K)