SINGAPORE- The Middle East crude market strengthened further on Thursday with DME Oman's premium to swaps rising close to $1 a barrel, the highest in two months.
PTT bought 1 million barrels of October-loading Das crude in a tender at a level similar to the last concluded trade for this grade, trade sources said.
India's MRPL bought 1 million barrels of Russian Urals crude in a tender for loading on Oct. 11-20, they said. One of the sources said offers for the Russian grade were lower than those for Middle East oil.
RUSSIA: Sakhalin Energy sold five cargoes of Sakhalin Blend loading in November and early December at higher premiums than the previous month, trade sources said.
Three of the cargoes were sold on a spot basis to SK Energy, Chinaoil and Shell at premiums between $2.80 and $3 a barrel to Dubai quotes, they said, compared with premiums of $2.35-$2.55 a barrel in the previous month.
Spot premiums for Russian grades have improved this month as the underlying benchmark Dubai has weakened against Brent, they said.
The first cargo loading on Nov. 4-10 was sold at a premium just under $3 a barrel to Dubai quotes, they said. Two other cargoes were sold to term buyers.
The cargoes of 740,000 barrels each were to load on Nov. 4-10, 10-16, 16-22, 22-28 and Nov. 28 to Dec. 4.
WINDOW: Cash Dubai's premium to swaps rose 9 cents from Tuesday to 56 cents a barrel after Vitol bought six October partials. Reliance will deliver an Upper Zakum cargo to Vitol following Thursday's trades. Seller-Buyer Price Equinor-Vitol 73.15 Reliance-Vitol 73.15 Mitsui-Vitol 73.15 Chinaoil-Vitol 73.15 Reliance-Vitol* 73.15 Equinor-Vitol 73.15
REFINERY
A fire which broke out at a Shell-owned chemical plant on the same site as Essar Oil UK's Stanlow refinery in northwestern England on Wednesday has been extinguished.
Essar said that operations at its refinery were unaffected by the fire, the cause of which is currently unclear.
MOVES
Equinor said on Thursday it hired two crude oil traders in Singapore to form a four-man team as it steps up trading and oil marketing in Asia.
"We can confirm that Equinor has hired Chen Fei Fan and Chung Chong Min to become part of our 4-man team in Singapore led by Ragnar Bulie," Equinor spokesman Sverre Olden Mala said in an e-mail.
Beijing-based Chen will be leaving Sinochem Corp to join Equinor in September, three industry sources said.
Chung, formerly a derivatives trader at South Korea's SK Energy, joined Equinor recently, they said.
Equinor trades in crude oil produced in the Middle East and Russia as well as markets its oil produced in Europe, Africa and the United States to refiners in Asia.
Sinochem did not respond to a request for comment.
NEWS
Saudi Arabia has called off both the domestic and international stock listing of state oil giant Aramco, billed as the biggest such deal in history, four senior industry sources said.
U.S. crude oil imports from Nigeria in July plunged to the lowest level in three years and are continuing to slip as Asian and European buyers increase purchases, trade flow data from Thomson Reuters and market intelligence firms Genscape and Kpler show.
For crude prices, oil product cracks and refining margins, please click on the RICs below.
(Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu) ((Florence.Tan@thomsonreuters.com; +65 6870 3497; Reuters Messaging: florence.tan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
