SINGAPORE - The Middle East crude benchmarks eased on Monday despite robust demand from Shell on window.

Outside the window, spot trading levels have also weakened with medium-sour grades trading at Dubai-linked prices.

More details emerged for Qatar Marine trades. India's HMEL has bought at least one cargo at 50-55 cents a barrel above Dubai quotes, which puts the oil at discounts of 10-20 cents a barrel to its OSP, traders said. PTT has also bought two Qatar Marine cargoes at similar levels.

 

IRAQ: Iraq's state oil marketer SOMO resumed Basra crude oil sales via the Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) on Monday.

SOMO sold 2 million barrels Basra Light crude loading on Nov. 16-17 at 20 cents a barrel above the oil's official selling price, DME said.

Trade sources said Unipec won the auction.

The second and third highest bids from the 18 companies that participated were at premiums of 19 cents and 15 cents, respectively, DME said.

The buyer has the option of sending the cargo to Europe or Asia, it added.

SOMO last sold Basra Light through the DME in January, offering a cargo for March loading. However, the company halted the sales since it did not have excess oil to offer in the spot market. 

 

RUSSIA: Gazpromneft has sold an ESPO cargo for Dec. 3-13 loading at about $5.40 a barrel above Dubai quotes to a Chinese buyer, traders said. Tenergy was also heard to be offering a cargo to load in mid-December at about the same level, they said.

ARBITRAGE: CPC Corp has signed its first long-term deal to buy U.S. crude, a company official said on Monday, one of only a few such deals by Asian buyers who normally purchase U.S. oil on the spot market. CPC has awarded a tender to an unnamed U.S. trading company and it will receive 2 million barrels of U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Midland crude every month between February and June, the official said.

The cargoes will be priced at a differential to a formula comprising the Argus WTI Houston crude price assessment, Brent swaps and dated to front-line swaps (DFL), he said.

This allows CPC to convert WTI prices to dated Brent, which is one of two price markers used in Taiwan's domestic oil pricing, he added.

 

 

 

REFINERY

Japan's JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy Corp said it restarted the 46,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit at its Sakai refinery in Osaka, western Japan, last Tuesday after repair work to the damaged cooling tower was completed. 

NEWS

Saudi Arabia has no intention of unleashing a 1973-style oil embargo on Western consumers and will isolate oil from politics, the Saudi energy minister said on Monday amid a worsening crisis over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. 

Oman's oil and condensates output increased to 990,200 barrels per day (bpd) in September, the oil ministry wrote on Twitter on Sunday. 

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday it will be harder for countries to get waivers on Iran oil sanctions than during the Obama administration and dismissed concerns that oil prices could rise, saying the market had already factored in the losses. 

Asia's gasoline margin fell to more than a two-year low late last week due to ample supplies, and the October average is now expected to be the worst for the month since 2013, based on Thomson Reuters data.

Intercontinental Exchange Inc said its new Permian West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures contract deliverable in Houston, Texas, will begin trading on Monday. 

The upcoming startup of an expanded crude pipeline from the Permian Basin to Cushing, Oklahoma has rapidly strengthened oil prices in West Texas while weighing on futures as traders expect stockpiles to rise in Cushing, the delivery point for the benchmark contract. 

(Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Vyas Mohan) ((Florence.Tan@thomsonreuters.com; +65 6870 3497; Reuters Messaging: florence.tan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))