SINGAPORE, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Values in the Middle East crude market strengthened Wednesday as the premium for al-Shaheen crude for March-lifting edged higher from earlier in the week on strong fuel oil cracks. At least one cargo of the Qatari crude was sold by Maersk at a premium of $2.50-$3.00 to Dubai quotes, up from $2.40-$2.50 earlier, a trader said. Asian fuel oil cracks are trading at their highest level in at least three years due to tight supplies of cracked on-specification fuel for the marine fuels market and strong demand for straight-run fuel oil as feedstocks to China's teapot refineries. * TRADES - Basra Light for March-lifting was sold at a discount of 10 cents to official selling prices (OSP). - March Lower Zakum crude traded at minus 30 cents to OSP. - Qatar Marine for March transacted at a discount of 40-50 cents to OSP. - Mercuria bought five Dubai partials from SK Energy and Shell for $110.10-$110.45. * EFS - Front-month Brent/Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS) for March DUB-EFS-1M fell 22 cents to $2.73 a barrel. * OMAN ASSESSMENTS - March Oman traded on the DME slipped 3 cents to a premium of $2.73 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 - Iraq aims to boost oil exports by up to 400,000 barrels per day over the next two months as it opens the taps at a new Gulf outlet, a senior Iraqi oil industry source said on Tuesday, signalling the world's biggest capacity expansion this year. - Mild weather in the northern hemisphere this winter and a rising likelihood of a sharp economic slowdown will likely lead to lower global oil demand growth in 2012, the International Energy Agency said. - Japan's commercial crude inventories rose 1.8 percent to their highest level in about 3-1/2 months last week despite robust refining, indicating strong imports, industry data showed on Wednesday. * REFINERY MARGINS - Simple gross refining margins for Dubai in Singapore were at $2.35 per barrel, up from an average of the last five days of $2.13, Reuters data show. Over the last year, the average margin has been about minus 82 cents per barrel. * CRACK SPREADS - Fuel oil's February crack gained $1.00 to a discount of 16 cents a barrel to Dubai crude. - Gasoil's February crack fell 97 cents to a premium of $18.43 a barrel to Dubai crude. - Naphtha's front-month crack strengthened 60 cents to a discount of $7.24 a barrel to Brent crude. * OUTRIGHT PRICES - March ICE Brent was at $111.49 a barrel at 0830 GMT, down 71 cents from Tuesday. - March Oman fell 52 cents to settle at $111.49.

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