RTRS:Middle East Crude-Banoco Arab sold higher, flips to premium
SINGAPORE, Jan 11 (Reuters) - The Middle East crude
market was mixed on Wednesday, with prices for March Banoco Arab
Medium flipping into a premium from last month, while values for
Murban and Qatar Marine crudes stayed soft at double-digit
discounts.
A cargo of Banoco Arab for March-lifting was heard traded at
a premium of around 30 cents a barrel to Arab Medium official
selling prices (OSP), up from a slight discount in the previous
month, traders said.
The Bahrain crude's pricing link to Saudi Arabian OSPs,
which were cut sharply for February, helped boost its
attractiveness, a trader said.
However, relatively higher OSPs for Abu Dhabi Murban and
Qatar Marine continues to dampen sentiment for the grades. Weak
buying interest has pushed offers for the two grades to a
discount wider than 20 cents a barrel to OSPs, a trader said.
* OSPs
- Iran has lowered its official selling prices (OSPs) for
February-loading crude to Asia from the previous month, in line
with the declines in benchmark Saudi Arabian prices, traders
said on Wednesday.
The size of cut in Iran Light crude matched Saudi Arabia's
February Arab Light OSP, which was lowered by $2.10 a barrel, a
level that was higher than expected by traders.
- Kuwait has lowered the official selling price (OSP) for
its crude oil sales to Asian buyers for February by $1.90 a
barrel from January to $0.50 a barrel above the average of
Oman/Dubai quotes, traders said on Wednesday.
Kuwait set its OSP at $2.40 per barrel above the Oman/Dubai
average for January loading. For more OSPs see.
Kuwait's crude price formula is loosely linked to that of
Saudi Arabia's Arab Medium grade.
- Iraq cut the price of Basra light crude to Asian buyers,
the State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) said on Wednesday.
The February official selling price for Basra light crude
for Asian buyers was set at a premium of $1.10 to the average of
Oman/Dubai quotes, down $1.80 from the previous month.
* TRADES
Unipec sold two Dubai partials, one each to Arcadia and
Hetco, at $111.20-$111.29. Arcadia bought another two Dubai
partials from SK Energy, at $110.10 and $111.15 a barrel.
* EFS
- Front-month Brent/Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps
(EFS) for February DUB-EFS-1M rose 26 cents from Tuesday to
$3.44 a barrel.
* OMAN ASSESSMENTS
- March Oman traded on the DME gained 30 cents to a premium
of $2.48 to Dubai swap quotes at 0830 GMT, using the settlement
price for DME futures, the ICE one-minute marker for Singapore
and the Brent-Dubai EFS as calculated by Reuters.
* MARKET NEWS
- India's government has told refiners to reduce Iranian oil
imports and find alternatives as New Delhi may not seek a waiver
that would protect buyers of Tehran's oil from a fresh round of
U.S. sanctions, two industry sources said on Wednesday.
- Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia is nearing its comfortable
operational production limits and may struggle to do much to
make up for shortages that arise from new sanctions imposed on
Iran by the West, Gulf-based sources said.
- China's apparent crude oil consumption could accelerate in
2012 from a year earlier due to ongoing strong demand for energy
and chemical products, forecasts from an industry association
showed on Wednesday.
- China's apparent crude oil consumption could accelerate in
2012 from a year earlier due to ongoing strong demand for energy
and chemical products, forecasts from an industry association
showed on Wednesday.
- Saudi Arabia has sold 500,000 barrels of Khafji crude to
South Korea's GS Caltex from storage in Japan, industry sources
said on Wednesday.
- An Iranian nuclear scientist was killed by a bomb placed
on his car on Wednesday in an attack Tehran's deputy governor
blamed on Israel, raising the diplomatic temperature in a
stand-off with the West over Iran's nuclear programme.
* REFINERY MARGINS
- Simple gross refining margins for Dubai in Singapore were
at $1.24 per barrel, up from an average of the last five days of
58 cents, Reuters data show. Over the last year, the average
margin has been about minus 86 cents per barrel.
* CRACK SPREADS
- Fuel oil's February crack narrowed $1.44 to a discount of
$1.35 a barrel to Dubai crude.
- Gasoil's February crack rose 54 cents to a premium of
$19.46 a barrel to Dubai crude.
- Naphtha's front-month crack widened $1.20 to a discount of
$7.64 a barrel to Brent crude.
* OUTRIGHT PRICES
- February ICE Brent was at $113.64 a barrel at 0830
GMT, up 59 cents from Tuesday.
- March Oman rose 57 cents to settle at $112.24.
(Reporting by Francis Kan; Editing by Manash Goswami)
