Middle East crude benchmarks Oman, Dubai and Murban advanced on Friday, tracking rising Brent and WTI prices on hopes that China’s economic stimulus policies would boost fuel demand.

The premiums for Brent futures to Dubai swaps continued to stay at three-week low, making oil from Americas and West Africa attractive to Asian refiners.

Asian refiners have booked near-record volumes of U.S. crude to be shipped in August, replacing Middle Eastern oil, as competitive prices and ample supplies attracted heavy buying, according to trade sources.

For tenders, Taiwan’s CPC bought 4 million barrels of Upper Zakum crude for September-loading via a tender, traders said.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

Cash Dubai’s premium to swaps rose 31 cents to $1.92 a barrel. Trafigura will deliver one September-loading Dubai to Gunvor following the trades.

NEWS

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed an amendment to an annual defense bill on Thursday that would ban exports to China of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Russia is not ruling out introducing quotas on the export of oil products to stabilise gasoline prices, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday, according to state media, as gasoline wholesale prices hit an all-time high.

Iran said the oil cargo of an Iranian-flagged supertanker seized by Indonesia last week does not belong to Tehran, Iranian state media reported on Friday.

Some 1,200 barrels of crude oil spilled on Ecuador’s northern coast, after a tank of state-owned Petroecuador surpassed its maximum capacity, contaminating a four-km-long stretch of beach, authorities said on Thursday.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Muyu Xu; Editing by Sohini Goswami)