Middle East crude benchmarks Oman, Dubai and Murban edged lower on Monday as most buyers in Asia have completed their spot purchases for July.

Abu Dhabi Upper Zakum crude supply has improved with three July-loading cargoes delivered on the window so far this month.

This comes as the amount of Upper Zakum crude loaded for ADNOC’s Ruwais refinery in May has slipped to 171,000 barrels per day (bpd), down from 214,000 bpd in April after peaking at 361,000 bpd in March, Kpler data showed.

Upper Zakum crude exports fell in recent months after the Ruwais refinery completed an upgrade and started processing the medium sour grade.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

Cash Dubai’s premium to swaps fell 1 cent to $1.58 a barrel. Trafigura will deliver a July-loading Upper Zakum crude cargo to Mercuria following the deals.

Mercuria has so far received seven of the eight cargoes delivered on Platts window this month. These include one cargo each of Murban, Dubai and Oman, two al-Shaheen cargoes and three Upper Zakum cargoes.

REFINERY

Japan’s Cosmo Oil, a unit of Cosmo Energy Holdings 5021.T, shut down the 102,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) No.2 crude distillation unit (CDU) at the Chiba refinery on April 29 for planned maintenance, a company spokesperson said on Monday.

The maintenance is scheduled to last for about two months, he said.

NEWS

Saudi Arabia is planning a multi-billion-dollar share sale in energy giant Aramco 2222.SE as soon as June in what would be one of the region’s biggest stock deals, two people familiar with the matter said.

Goldman Sachs raised its global oil demand forecast for 2030 on Monday and expects consumption to peak by 2034 on a potential slowdown in electric vehicle (EV) adoption, keeping refineries running at higher-than-average rates till the end of this decade.

Iran has approved a plan to raise its oil output to four million barrels per day, the country’s Tasnim news agency said on Sunday, without providing a time frame.

Russia’s ESPO oil blend exports from the Pacific port of Kozmino have increased by 5% so far in May from April’s average to a record-high of 960,000 barrels per day (bpd), Kommersant daily reported on Monday citing Kpler ship-tracking data.

South Africa’s state-owned Central Energy Fund has acquired land and assets at the country’s largest refinery which has been out of operation for the last two years, the energy ministry said on Saturday.

Container shipper X-Press Feeders has conducted its first bio-methanol refuelling operation at the port of Singapore on Monday, a company executive said, after receiving in mid-May its first out of 14 dual-fuelled vessels ordered.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Sohini Goswami)