Middle East crude benchmarks Oman, Dubai and Murban edged up on Friday, recovering from multi-year lows seen earlier this week as wide discounts drew buying interest.

Prices flipped into negative territory on Wednesday, levels not seen since 2020, after Oman’s energy ministry offered 2 million barrels of crude loading this month, raising concerns of excess supply.

Following that, spot differentials for Qatari grades in QatarEnergy’s monthly tenders also slipped to their lowest since 2020.

The producer sold two al-Shaheen cargoes to Unipec at 90 cents a barrel below Dubai quotes, trade sources said. This was down from premiums of $1.58 to $1.77 a barrel for January-loading cargoes.

QatarEnergy also sold one February-loading cargo each of Qatar Land and Marine crude to Shell and PTT, respectively, at $1.10 a barrel below Dubai quotes, the sources said.

CHINA

China’s oil refinery throughput in November fell versus the previous month as independent refiners cut run rates amid weak margins and crude oil imports slowed.

Total refinery throughput in the world’s second-largest oil consumer was 59.53 million metric tons, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Friday.

That was equivalent to 14.48 million barrels per day (bpd), a slowdown on October’s 15.05 million bpd and the lowest daily level since the January-February period, during which run rates averaged 14.36 million bpd.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

Cash Dubai’s discount to swaps narrowed 8 cents to 37 a barrel.

REFINERY

Shell SHEL.L on Friday said it has agreed to sell its 37.5% stake in the PCK Schwedt oil refinery, which supplies most of Berlin’s fuel, to Britain’s Prax Group.

NEWS

A Liberia-flagged container ship sustained damage from an “aerial attack” as it was sailing through the Bab al-Mandab strait, causing a fire on deck and a container to fall overboard, the British maritime security firm Ambrey said on Friday.

Canadian government-owned Trans Mountain Corp asked the country’s energy regulator on Thursday to reverse a decision rejecting proposed construction changes on its oil pipeline expansion, warning of a possibly “catastrophic” two-year delay and billions of dollars in losses.

Freepoint Commodities LLC has agreed to pay over $98 million to settle U.S. charges in connection with a scheme to misappropriate material non-public information and bribe Brazilian officials, authorities said on Thursday.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)