SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks were mixed on Wednesday with DME Oman little changed while cash Dubai extended its decline for a third session.
Initial trades for February-loading cargoes showed that light sour grades remained at discounts against their respective OSPs.
MIDDLE EAST CRUDE: Unipec has sold a cargo of February-loading Qatar Land crude to an unknown buyer, likely at a discount of 35 cents a barrel to its OSP.
February-loading al-Shaheen crude has traded at a premium of about 30 cents a barrel to Dubai quotes, traders said. JX Nippon may have bought a cargo.
Iraq's SOMO will close on Thursday tenders to sell 2 million barrels of Basra Light crude for Dec. 24 loading and 1 million barrels of Basra Heavy crude for Dec. 20 loading. The cargoes are allowed to head to Asia or Europe.
ASIA-PACIFIC CRUDE: BHP has sold its North West Shelf (NWS) condensate cargo loading on Feb. 7-11 at $3-$3.25 a barrel below dated Brent, a much narrower discount than the previous month.
Traders attributed the improved price level for condensate to a recovery in naphtha margins and demand for the ultra-light oil from Indonesia and China.
A trader bought the cargo and may have offered it in Pertamina's buy tender, traders said. China's Fuhaichuang will close a tender on Thursday to buy up to 250,000 tonnes (1.8 million barrels) of condensate
Quadrant Energy offered a cargo of Van Gogh loading on Feb. 20-24 at a premium of more than $2 a barrel to dated Brent.
There are nine Kimanis cargoes to load in February, one less than the previous month, because there are less days in February.
REFINERY
India has delayed the commissioning of a giant refinery that state-owned firms are building in tie up with Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) by two year to 2025, a senior official at the consortium told Reuters on Tuesday.
NEWS
U.S. crude oil output growth was expected to slow slightly for this year compared with previous forecasts, the Energy Information Administration said on Tuesday, but at a record 10.88 million barrels per day, the nation will end 2018 as the world's top producer.
The sooner-than-expected startup of the extended Sunrise oil pipeline system in west Texas has shifted flows of crude and boosted inventories in Cushing, Oklahoma, close to a one-year high, with traders now bracing for builds into next year.
Canada's largest pipeline operator Enbridge Inc said on Tuesday it was working on alternatives to ease the ongoing pipeline capacity shortage in the country and is in talks with shippers for a new agreement for its Mainline system.
The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) loaded three supertankers in the last seven days, it said on Monday, as U.S. crude exports have surged to the highest on record.
(Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Sunil Nair) ((Florence.Tan@thomsonreuters.com; +65 6870 3497; Reuters Messaging: florence.tan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
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