SINGAPORE, Feb 28 (Reuters) - The Dubai cash market weakened further on Thursday with the partials trading more than a dollar below the previous session on the last trading day of the month, traders said. The spot Middle East crude market remained steady as traders awaited official selling price (OSP) announcements from producers due next week. Prices may be raised slightly on expectations of a pick-up in demand, traders said. TRADES: - April Dubai partials changed hands at between $106.75-106.85 per barrel on Thursday, compared with $108.15-108.50 on Wednesday. The price has dropped from $110.5 at the start of the month largely on selling by Arcadia Energy. On Thursday, Arcadia sold ten partials in the over-the-counter cash window, two to Gunvor and eight to Vitol. *OSP - The official selling price (OSP) for Oman crude in April will rise to $111.21 a barrel, up $3.43 from the previous month, Reuters calculations based on data from the Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) showed on Thursday. The April Oman OSP is the average of the daily Oman settlements at 0830 GMT in February for the front-month contract. The Oman OSP for March was $107.78 a barrel. So the April Dubai crude OSP, set at a 10-cent premium to DME Oman, will be $111.31 a barrel. REFINERY NEWS: - Oman's state-run Sohar refinery said it is shutting down on Thursday for 46 days of maintenance. The refinery is expected to restart around April 15.ID:nL6N0BS3K2 - Japan's top oil refiner, JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp plans to refine 2 percent more crude oil in March from a year earlier for domestic consumption and boost oil product exports by 62 percent to take advantage of improving margins.ID:nL4N0BS32B *MARKET NEWS - Yemen's Aden Refinery (ARC) has agreed to buy 13 cargoes of gasoline for delivery between March and June from Glencore, Totsa and Vitol, traders said on Thursday.ID:nL6N0BS31Q - Japan's crude oil imports from Iran in January fell 29.5 percent from the same month a year ago, trade ministry data showed on Thursday, in line with reductions by other Asian buyers as Western sanctions on Tehran cut shipments.ID:nL4N0BS1H1 CRUDE ($/bbl) Price Prev Change APR DME Oman diff to Dubai swap -0.02 0.11 -0.13 APR BrentBRENTSGMc1 112.03 113.26 -1.23 APR DubaiDUBSGSWMc2 107.00 108.44 -1.44 APR DME Oman 106.98 108.55 -1.57 APR Brent/Dubai EFSDUB-EFS-1M 5.03 4.82 +0.21 PRODUCT CRACKS MAR fuel oil crackFO180SGCKMc1 -9.21 -10.27 1.06 MAR gasoil crackGOSGCKMc1 20.46 20.91 -0.45 APR naphtha crackNAFOBSGCKMc1 -8.42 -7.76 -0.66 COMPLEX REFINERY MARGINSREF/MARGIN1 Today 11.91 Last 5 days 11.01 Last 365 days 7.46 (Reporting by Ramya Venugopal; editing by Jason Neely) ((ramya.venugopal@thomsonreuters.com)(+65 68703826)(Reuters Messaging: ramya.venugopal@thomsonreuters.com.reuters.net))
((RECENT CRUDE OIL TRADES Asia...ACRU/T Europe...CRU/T Americas...CRU/TU CRUDE OIL MARKET NEWS Crude oil tenders in Asia...................CRU/TENDA Crude oil supply outages in Asia............CRU/OUT-ASIA-O Refinery outages in Asia....................REF/OUT-ASIA-O Global arbitrage news and flows.................O/CRUDEARB W.African crude imports to Asia, monthly........O/WAFRICA1 REFINERY MAINTENANCE DIARIES Asia...REF/A Middle East...REF/ME Europe...REF/E NATIONAL CRUDE IMPORT DATA Japan..............METI/JP1 China..............O/CHINA1 India..............O/INDIA2 S.Korea............O/KOREA1 Indonesia.......O/INDO1-CRU CRUDE OIL INVENTORY DATA Japan...O/JAPAN1 US...EIA/S Europe...O/EUROIL1 CRUDE OIL PRODUCTION/OILFIELD NEWS OPEC output survey...OPEC/O New Asian fields...ASIA/NEW New Africa fields...AFR/NEW New Americas fields..AM/NEW New projects.....ENERGY/NEW CRUDE OIL MARKET REPORTS Middle East...........CRU/M Asia-Pacific........CRU/AP West Africa.........CRU/WAF North Sea............CRU/E Asia outlook.......ASIA/CRU Europe outlook.....EUR/CRU Global futures report...O/R Technicals report......O/I PRICES For all Official Selling Prices......................OSP/O For a POLL on oil prices............................O/POLL NYMEX and ICE oil futures...........................OILOIL TOCOM crude oil futures.............................0#JCO: Dubai, Oman swaps and spread...............ASIA/SWAP/CRUDE Middle East physical crude diffs...............CRUDE/ASIA2 Australia physical crude, Tapis swaps..........CRUDE/ASIA1 Asia-Pacific physical crude....................CRUDE/ASIA3 All Asian crude oil differentials................0#C-DIF-A All Asian crude oil outright prices..................0#C-A ))
Keywords: MARKETS MIDEAST CRUDE/
