RTRS:Middle East Crude-Saudi Arabia raises Arab Light OSP for Asia
SINGAPORE, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia
has raised the official selling price (OSP) of its Arab Light
crude for Asia in December by a larger-than-expected 20 cents
and cut prices of Arab Medium and Arab Heavy by a
smaller-than-expected margin.
Saudi Aramco said prices of Arab Medium will be cut by 10
cents per barrel and Arab Heavy will be lowered by 45 cents,
compared with expectations of 15 cents and 50 cents
respectively.
Traders had expected Arab Light prices to increase by only
10 cents.
"The higher prices came in spite of collapsing gasoline and
stable naphtha cracks and may increase demand for spot barrels,
particularly Russian ESPO, given current spot assessments of
below $3 per barrel," JBC Energy said in a report.
Dealers said on Monday they will wait for official selling
prices of other producers, mainly Abu Dhabi National Oil Co
(ADNOC) and Qatar, for further trading cues.
The OSPs will be announced this week and trading in January
cargoes will begin soon after. Premiums on December cargoes of
light crudes narrowed in spot trading after OSPs differentials
were worse than expected.
*TRADES
- Royal Dutch Shell bought seven January Dubai partials at
prices between $103.35 and $103.40 per barrel. It bought four
partials from Mercuria, two from Phibro and one from SK Energy.
Phibro also sold one January Dubai partial to Trafigura at
$103.30 a barrel.
*MARKET NEWS:
- JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp has delayed the restart of its
150,000 barrels per day (bpd) No.4 crude distillation unit (CDU)
at the 270,000 bpd Negishi refinery due to a change in its
planned maintenance schedule.
- Workers at Total's Donges and La Mede refineries in France
voted to strike for 24 hours on Monday to protest against the
possible liquidation of the former Petroplus refinery in
northern France, union officials said.
CRUDE Price Prev Change
JAN DME Oman diff to Dubai 2.00 2.38 -0.38
DEC Brent 105.17 107.71 -2.54
JAN Dubai 101.42 103.87 -2.45
JAN DME Oman 103.42 106.25 -2.83
DEC Brent/Dubai EFS DUB-EFS-1M 3.10 3.14 -0.04
PRODUCT CRACKS
DEC fuel oil crack -9.34 -9.38 +0.04
DEC gasoil crack 18.22 18.40 -0.18
DEC naphtha crack -5.17 -4.93 -0.24
COMPLEX REFINERY MARGINS
Today 4.76
Last 5 days 6.34
Last 365 days 7.28
