SINGAPORE, Nov 14 (Reuters) - The Middle East crude market strengthened on Monday, with premiums for January-loading Qatar Marine extending its gains from last week, traders said. The Qatari grade was heard to have traded at a premium of 50 cents a barrel to OSP, up from 40-50 cents last week, a trader said, although this could not be confirmed. December cargoes for Qatar Marine were done at 30-40 cents above OSP. Qatar's Al-Shaheen crude had yet to start trading, as the market waits for Tasweeq to firm up its loading schedule and issue a tender to sell January cargoes. The heavy sour grade could hold steady near record spot premiums fetched for December supply, similar to Oman, on support from strong gasoil and fuel oil cracks. Abu Dhabi's Lower Zakum crude transacted at a premium of around 15 cents to OSP, in line with values heard last week, a trader said. *OSPs - Iraq has raised the official selling price of its Basra Light crude for loading in December to customers in Asia, as expected, a trader said on Monday. That was within the range of expectations in a Reuters survey. The December price for Asian buyers rose to a premium of $1.80 to the average of Oman/Dubai quotes, up 15 cents from November, the trader said. *TRADES - Shell bought three Dubai partials from Phibro at $112.10-$112.15 a barrel. *OMAN ASSESSMENTS - January Oman traded on the DME was valued at $3.58 to Dubai swap quotes by 0830 GMT, up from $3.40 in the previous session, using the settlement price for DME futures, the ICE one-minute marker for Singapore and the Brent-Dubai EFS as calculated by Reuters. *EFS - Brent crude's premium to the Middle East marker Dubai fell on Monday to its lowest level in more than six weeks on higher North Sea supply and a stronger Dubai quote. Front-month Brent/Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS)DUB-EFS-1M for December lost 56 cents to $4.39 a barrel. *MARKET NEWS - Current oil prices are fair although there are signs of a slight increase in global oil demand, Algeria's energy minister said on Monday. - Spot market demand for supertankers carrying Middle East crude oil surged to a record high of as much as 137 fixtures in November, representing 9.13 million barrels of oil per day, traders said. - There are no signs of dropping global oil demand and the market appeared to be balanced at current levels, Iran's energy minister said on Monday. - Japan's utilities consumed more than 13 times the amount of crude oil in October compared with a year earlier to generate electricity, compensating for a record-low nuclear plant utilisation rate, industry data showed on Monday. - Russia's No.2 crude oil producer LUKOIL said it is considering bidding for exploration in more oil and gas blocks offshore Vietnam after acquiring the first block in the Southeast Asian country's northern area. - A strike at Libya oil producer Waha Oil, which pumped around a quarter of pre-war output, has ended after workers' demands for a new chairman were met, a workforce representative said on Monday.  *REFINERY MARGINS - Complex processing margins for Dubai in Singapore were around $6.80 per barrel, down from an average of $8.16 in the last five days, Reuters data show. Over the last year, the average margin has been around $8.16 per barrel. *CRACK SPREADS - Fuel oil's December crack widened 24 cents to a discount of $2.63 a barrel to Dubai crude. - Gas oil's December crack shed 11 cents to a premium of $19.80 a barrel to Dubai crude. - The naphtha CFR Japan front-month crack fell 92 cents to a discount of $15.92 a barrel to Brent. *OUTRIGHT PRICES - December ICE Brent was at $114.48 a barrel at 0830 GMT, up 14 cents from Friday. - January Oman rose 64 cents to $112.47. (Reporting by Francis Kan and Florence Tan; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

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