Middle East crude benchmarks Oman, Dubai and Murban fell on Thursday, hurt by increasing arbitrage cargoes from Americas, North Sea and West Africa, coupled with a narrowing spread between Brent futures and Dubai swaps.

The spread, known as Brent/Dubai EFS, was at $0.35 a barrel, the narrowest level in three weeks.

Asian refiners have increased purchases from further afield, leaving cargoes – especially light sour grades – slow to move this month.

For tenders, Taiwan’s CPC likely bought 4 million barrels of September-loading WTI Midland via its tender closed earlier this week, according to traders.

Thailand’s PTT likely bought 500,000 barrels of Murban via a tender, also for September-loading.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

Cash Dubai’s premium to swaps fell 12 cents to $1.61 a barrel. Reliance will deliver one September-loading Upper Zakum to Gunvor following the trades.

NEWS

China’s imports of crude oil from Russia hit an all-time high in June, Chinese government data showed on Thursday, with refiners continuing to snap up Russian ESPO even as discounts against international benchmarks narrow.

Russian Urals oil prices jumped above the $60-per-barrel Western price cap on Wednesday as discounts for the grade narrowed in Indian ports for August barrels amid shorter supply, according to four sources involved in trading and Reuters calculations.

India’s imports of Russian oil edged up to an all-time high in June, though growing at the slowest pace since October, tanker data obtained from trade sources showed on Wednesday, signaling its appetite for Russian oil may have peaked.

Japan did not import oil from Russia in June for the fourth month in a row, data released by Japan’s finance ministry showed on Thursday, with imports of liquefied natural gas falling by 21.4% from a year earlier.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Muyu Xu; Editing by Sohini Goswami)