SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks were little changed on Thursday while Total made further reductions to offers for Abu Dhabi light grades in the Platts window.

Total offered a cargo of Murban crude for July 1-25 loading at 35 cents a barrel above its official selling price and a Das Blend crude cargo loading in the same period at a premium of 30 cents to its OSP, down from offers at 55-60 cents a day earlier, traders said.

BP bid for a July Upper Zakum crude cargo at 70 cents a barrel above its OSP.

MIDEAST: Iraq has sold 1 million barrels of Basra Light crude to Unipec for June 29-30 loading at premiums of 20-30 cents a barrel to its Asia OSP, two trade sources said.

The premium was much lower than a premium of 77 cents a barrel for an earlier deal.

"Seems like there were no buyers," one of the sources said.

Iraq subsequently issued another tender to sell another 1 million barrels of Basra Light crude to load on June 25-27, another source said. The new tender will close on May 23.

Qatar Petroleum has sold al-Shaheen crude at the highest average premium since 2013 on robust demand for medium-heavy grades in Asia, according to multiple trade sources and Reuters data. 

QP sold the cargoes, for loading in July, at a range of premiums from $2.70 to $3.60 a barrel, or an average of $3.06 a barrel, above Dubai quotes, they said.

Chinaoil, Shell and Cosmo Oil bought the cargoes, the sources said.

QP also set the price for term buyers at a premium of $3.52 a barrel, they said.

The producer had offered five cargoes in the tender for loading on July 1-2, 12-13, 18-19, 23-24 and 29-30 but it may have sold at least one cargo before the tender, the sources said.

Separately, Japan's METI has issued a tender to sell Khafji crude from the country's reserves. 

RUSSIA: Sakhalin Energy has sold four crude cargoes for loading in August and September at the highest premiums for the year, trade sources said. 

Spot premiums for the Russian grade were pulled up by comparatively higher prices for Middle East and Russian crude this month, although demand was lacklustre on weak naphtha and gasoline margins, they said.

The producer sold two Sakhalin Blend crude cargoes on a spot basis at premiums of $2.30-$2.40 per barrel to Dubai quotes, up from about $2 in the previous month, the sources said.

The other two cargoes went to term buyers.

Sakhalin Blend crude supply was down from the usual five cargoes because of an ongoing maintenance at Train 1. 

Gazprom will close a tender later on Wednesday to sell an ESPO crude cargo to load on July 3-13.

ASIA-PACIFIC CRUDE: Limited spot supplies are pushing premiums for regional grades higher.

PV Oil has sold its two Chim Sao crude cargoes for July loading to Taiyo Oil and a trading company at a premium of about $5 a barrel to dated Brent, traders said.

Taiyo Oil also won PV Oil's Dai Hung crude tender at about $5 a barrel above dated Brent, they said.

Dubai has set its official differential to Oman futures 1OQc1 for August at a discount of $0.25 per barrel, the Dubai Department of Petroleum Affairs said.

 

NEWS

Hopes for a speedy resumption of oil exports from Russia to Poland and Germany along the Druzhba pipeline route are fading after plans to remove dirty oil from the pipeline had a major setback last week, three trading sources said. 

Turkey has closed its ports to Iranian oil, fully complying with U.S. sanctions against its main supplier, despite Ankara publicly criticising the United States' move to end import waivers and warning of a struggle to tap alternative producers. 

Pioneer Natural Resources Co, one of the largest producers in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico, announced on Tuesday that it had cut about a quarter of its workforce to save costs and boost shareholder value. P

Chinese companies looking to sign long-term agreements to buy crude oil from U.S. oil exporters have virtually disappeared, the chief executive of Enterprise Products Partners LP said. 

Pemex is striving to increase oil production by 1 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of 2024 by developing existing oilfields and others yet to be discovered, the company's chief executive said. 

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