Middle Eastern benchmark Murban, a light sour crude produced by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), dropped on Monday to its six-month-low, as supplies of the grade are expected to increase in the first two months of 2024.
Spot premium for Murban was at $1.34 a barrel over the Dubai quotes, down from $1.57 a barrel in the previous session.
UAE’s ADNOC will have 1.527 million barrels per day (bpd) of Murban available for export in January and 1.513 million bpd in February, compared with 1.352 million bpd in December, the company said in a report on Monday.
The increase of export availability is mainly due to the planned turnaround at ADNOC’s Ruwais refinery.
Light crude in Asia is also weighed by a narrower spread between Brent and Dubai, which makes hauling crude from Atlantic Basin to Asia more economical.
Taiwan’s CPC bought 6 million barrels of U.S. WTI Midland crude for February arrival at a price of about $3 a barrel over the Dubai quotes, on the CFR basis, according to trading sources.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
Cash Dubai’s premium to swaps fell 21 cents to $1.66 per barrel.
Reliance will deliver one January-loading Dubai cargo to Vitol following the trades.
NEWS
OPEC+ has moved closer to a compromise with African oil producers on 2024 output levels, four OPEC+ sources told Reuters, after disagreements over those targets forced the group of oil-producing nations to postpone a key meeting.
One of Russia’s most lucrative oil trade routes since the imposition of Western sanctions over the Ukraine conflict faces a major challenge because of the drawbacks of payment in currency other than dollars, with no short-term solution in sight.
China has issued an additional 3 million metric tons in fuel oil import quotas in 2023 for non-state firms, according to a notice released by the country’s Ministry of Commerce on Monday.
Kazakhstan’s daily oil output fell by 15% on Nov. 26 from a day earlier as Russia halted Black Sea oil exports due to violent storms that caused high sea waves and power blackouts across Russia’s southern regions.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Muyu Xu; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)