RTRS:Middle East Crude-Steady, Formosa buys Basra Light at discount
SINGAPORE, Aug 27 (Reuters) - The Middle East crude market
was steady on Monday as most refiners have completed their
purchases of October loading crude, traders said.
*TENDERS
- Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical bought October
Iraqi Basra Light crude via tender at a double-digit discount to
the official selling price of the State Oil Marketing
Organization (SOMO), traders said. The seller was probably a
Chinese firm, they added.
*TRADES:
- There were no trades in the over-the-counter market on
Monday.
*REFINERY NEWS:
- Japan's top oil refiner, JX Nippon Oil & Energy, said on
Monday it expects to restart operations at the 136,000 barrels
per day (bpd) crude distillation unit (CDU) at its Oita refinery
in southwestern Japan in early September, after unplanned repair
work.
- Japan's Seibu Oil Co Ltd, a Showa Shell Sekiyu KK
group refiner, started maintenance at its sole 120,000 bpd
Yamaguchi refinery in western Japan on Monday, Showa Shell said.
*MARKET NEWS
- Delays in Iraq's pipeline construction threaten to stall
production at Royal Dutch Shell's Majnoon oilfield for
at least three months, forcing the field to miss a 2012 target
of 175,000 barrels per day, oil ministry documents showed.
- BHP Billiton said on Sunday that the company
planned to fully evacuate its two Gulf of Mexico oil and gas
platforms by Monday ahead of Tropical Storm Isaac's arrival as a
hurricane, but the final decision to shut down production had
yet to be made.
CRUDE Price Prev Change
OCT DME Oman diff to Dubai swaps +0.44 +0.70 -0.26
OCT Brent 114.86 114.63 +0.23
OCT Dubai 111.77 111.28 +0.49
OCT DME Oman 112.21 111.98 +0.23
OCT Brent/Dubai EFS 3.80 4.08 -0.28
