SINGAPORE- Russian and Middle East light grades came under pressure on Thursday, faced with competition from rising arbitrage supplies from the United States and Europe.
Total offered a July-loading Murban cargo on RIM at 5 cents above its OSP, down from earlier trades at premiums of 20-25 cents.
Russian Sokol crude premium for July fell to the lowest in two months after ONGC sold 700,000 barrels of the crude loading on July 20-26 at about $4.50 a barrel above Dubai quotes, traders said, down from earlier deals at premiums of $5.10-$5.30.
Surgutneftegaz offered an ESPO cargo loading on July 9-13 in a tender to close on May 24.
ARBITRAGE: China will import record volumes of U.S. oil and is likely to ship more U.S. soy after Beijing signalled to state-run refiners and grains purchasers they should buy more to help ease tensions between the two top economies, trade sources said on Wednesday.
Sinopec's trading arm Unipec has bought 16 million barrels, or about 533,000 barrels per day, of U.S. crude to load in June, they said, the largest volume ever to be lifted in a month by the company and worth about $1.1 billion.
REFINERY
Idemitsu Kosan Co said it would bring forward the start of planned maintenance on the sole 150,000 barrels per day crude distillation unit (CDU) at Hokkaido refinery to late May from early June.
Vietnam's Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical LLC has sold its first batch of diesel to the local market, after its new refinery was put into operation in April, the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group said.
NEWS
Russia and Saudi Arabia have a common position on the future of the oil output cut deal, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday, while Russia's Lukoil said the deal should remain in place but needs to be altered.
China has issued an additional 3.67 million tonnes of refined fuel export quotas to some state-run firms, two traders with direct knowledge of the matter said, taking the total export quota for 2018 to 43 million tonnes, level with 2017.
Libya's National Oil Corp on Wednesday cut oil production by about 120,000 barrels a day as its eastern subsidiary AGOCO faced power problems due to unusually hot weather, a company official said.
Eastern Libyan state oil firm AGOCO increased its crude production to 180,000 barrels a day (bpd) on Thursday, after it fell to 146,000 bpd a day earlier due to unusually hot weather affecting power turbines, a company official said.
Pump prices of petrol and diesel in India surged to a record high on Thursday, raising pressure on the government to find a solution to provide relief to consumers without taking a hit on its finances.
Mubadala Investment Company has acquired a 44 percent stake worth at least $271 million in an oil subsidiary of gas giant Gazprom.
(Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Sunil Nair) ((Florence.Tan@thomsonreuters.com; +65 6870 3497; Reuters Messaging: florence.tan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
