SINGAPORE, March 8 (Reuters) - Values in the Middle East crude strengthened on Thursday, with traders expecting Qatar Marine to trade at a premium after the grade's official selling prices (OSPs) for May were seen as more attractive compared to the previous month. May Qatar Marine could trade at a premium of between 10-20 cents to OSP, up from a small discount last seen for April cargoes, traders said. Trading of May-lifting cargoes is expected to kick off early next week, they added. * Qatar OSP - Qatar has raised its February retroactive official selling prices for Qatar Marine crude to $118.40 a barrel, up $6.20 from January, Qatar News Agency said. This puts the Qatar Marine OSP at a $2.24 per barrel premium to Dubai quotes, compared with a $2.40 premium in January. The Gulf Arab state also set the February Qatar Land crude OSP at $119.55, up $6.25 from January, the report said. The Qatar Land OSP is at premium of $3.39 a barrel above Dubai quotes, compared with $3.50 for January. Qatar is one of OPEC's smallest oil producers. * TRADES - Shell bought two Dubai partials from SK Energy at $123.30 a barrel. * TENDERS - Yemen is offering 2.5 million barrels of Masila crude for May-lifting in a tender that closes on Friday. The price awarded will be used as the official selling price for Masila for May. * MARKET NEWS - Royal Dutch Shell has stopped buying Iranian crude to comply with Western sanctions against Tehran and deliveries of oil under outstanding contracts will end within weeks, CEO Peter Voser said on Wednesday. - China's imports of crude oil and copper in February are expected to have fallen from January's levels, as many oil refineries start regular maintenance and industrial consumers push back metal shipments amid swollen inventories and feeble demand. - China, the world's top energy consumer, is expected to announce in the first half of this year a plan to cap total energy consumption for 2015, including individual targets for provinces, media reported. CRUDE Price Prev Change % change MAY Oman diff to Dubai 3.35 3.78 -0.43 APRIL Brent 125.08 122.63 2.45 2.00% MAY Dubai 120.41 117.99 2.42 2.05% May DME Oman 123.76 121.77 1.99 1.63% APRIL Brent/Dubai EFS 3.63 3.65 -0.02 PRODUCT CRACKS Price Prev Change APRIL fuel oil crack -6.74 -5.42 -1.32 APRIL gasoil crack 14.73 15.53 -0.80 APRIL naphtha crack -7.19 -6.41 -0.78 COMPLEX REFINERY MARGINS Today 6.57 Last 5 days 6.24 Lat 365 days 7.87

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