Spot premiums for Middle East crude benchmarks Oman and Dubai rose on Tuesday while Murban’s premium inched down.

ARBITRAGE

India’s BPCL has awarded a tender to buy 6 million barrels of U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Midland crude from Occidental in the fourth quarter, traders said on Tuesday.

The U.S. producer will deliver 2 million barrels of WTI each month to BPCL, they added.

Pricing details were not immediately available.

Separately, BPCL also bought 1 million barrels of WTI Midland oil from Vitol for October arrival, traders said.

The price of the spot cargo was around 4.60 per barrel above September dated Brent, they added.

RUSSIAN CRUDE

Indonesia’s Pertamina has added Russian oil grades to its tender lists to buy September crude, three traders said on Monday.

Pertamina asked for Russian Urals oil along with sour grades Kirkuk, Jubilee, al-Shaheen and others for Sept. 15-17 arrival at its Cilacap refinery.

Pertamina also asked for Sokol oil among sweet oil grades such as Azeri BTC, El Sharara, Qua Iboe and others for arrival at Cilacap over Sept. 18-20. The Sokol is to be supplied under CFR or delivered at port (DAP) terms only, according to the tender.

One of the tenders closed last week and another on Monday, the sources said. The results have yet to be announced.

A spokesperson for Pertamina’s refinery unit said on Tuesday the firm would purchase crude oil that was suitable for its refinery specifications, while complying with all relevant regulations.

“If we purchase crude oil from Russia, it will be done under price cap mechanism,” spokesperson Hermansyah Nasroen said.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Alexander Smith)