Dubai (PGCRDUBA) crude rose for a third day to the highest price since Nov. 14, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. No partial deals were completed in the pricing window, with buyers and sellers separated by 1 cent, according to a poll of traders who monitor the Platts market. Arcadia Petroleum Ltd. bid for 25,000 barrels of Dubai crude at $110.79. Royal Dutch Shell Plc. (RDSA) and South Korea’s SK Innovation Co. (096770) offered partial cargoes at $110.80. Gazprom OAO (OGZD) tried to buy Minas for a fourth day, bidding $121.75 a barrel. There were no offers. PV Oil Co., Vietnam’s state-owned oil marketing company, offered to sell two 250,000-barrel cargoes of its Ruby crude for loading March 5-11 and March 18-24. Bids are due Jan. 13. Indian Oil Corp. (IOCL), the nation’s largest refiner, bought 4 million barrels of Nigerian crude and 650,000 barrels from Libya for loading in March via a tender. The company purchased EA and Erha grades from Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), and Es Sider from Total SA. (FP) Indian Oil also bought Escravos and Forcados from Mercuria Energy Trading SA. Dubai crude’s 51 cent increase to $111.19 comes as China, the world’s second-largest oil consumer, slowed imports last year as the economy cooled and crude prices rose. Purchases from overseas gained 6 percent to 253.78 million metric tons last year, the General Administration of Customs said in a statement on its website today. Imports rose 18 percent in 2010 and 14 percent in 2009. Iran Concerns Halk Bankasi AS told Indian oil refiners it may no longer be able to act as an intermediary for their purchases of Iranian crude, four people with knowledge of the matter said. Executives from the crude-processing companies met with Indian oil ministry officials yesterday to discuss alternatives, including routing remittances through Russia. Other options include stopping purchases from Iran altogether and importing from other countries, they said. Indian officials are scheduled to visit Tehran for trade talks starting Jan. 16, two of the people said. China International United Petroleum & Chemical Corp., the nation’s biggest oil trader, is still negotiating a 2012 crude supply contract with National Iranian Oil Co., according to two people with knowledge of the talks. The contract between China International, known as Unipec, and NIOC was supposed to have been completed by the end of December, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the information is confidential. The trader purchases more than 200,000 barrels a day, according to a Dec. 19 report by Facts Global Energy, a Singapore-based consultancy. China imported 556,000 barrels a day of Iranian oil from January to November last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, accounting for 11 percent of the country’s total imports. Full Saudi Allocations Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the world’s largest state-owned exporter, will provide full contracted crude supplies to Asian buyers in February. The Dubai swaps backwardation, a market situation where the cost of prompt shipments is greater than that for later deliveries, widened today. Dubai for February rose 10 cents to $1.12 a barrel more than April shipments, according to data from PVM Oil Associates Ltd. The spread was $3.45 on Nov. 14. The Singapore refining margin for processing a barrel of Dubai crude into fuels such as gasoline and diesel was $6.24 this week, compared with an average of $3.83 for the last three months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The February Brent-Dubai exchange for swaps, which measures the European benchmark contract’s premium over the Middle East grade, fell 28 cents to $3.17 a barrel, according to PVM data at 1:52 p.m. Singapore time. The exchange for swaps for March (PVMMDBS2) fell 25 cents to $3.34. Oman futures for March delivery rose $1.17 to $111.67 a barrel on the Dubai Mercantile Exchange at 4:39 p.m. Singapore time with 1,817 contracts traded. To contact the reporter on this story: Ramsey Al-Rikabi in Singapore at ralrikabi@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net

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