SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks were mixed on Wednesday with DME Oman's premium to swaps little changed but cash Dubai slipped despite purchases mainly by BP on Platts window.

MIDEAST: Iraq's SOMO has sold 2 million barrels of Basra Light crude for loading in end May at a premium of 65-70 cents a barrel to the grade's official selling price via a tender, trade sources said. 

A Chinese trader bought the cargo loading on May 28-30, they said.

While the spot premium has remained relatively stable compared with earlier deals, the cost of carrying forward the cargo by a month to June, to compete with other cargoes, has increased to 80 cents a barrel, a trader said.

 

ARBITRAGE: Indonesia's state-owned energy company Pertamina has bought its first-ever cargo of U.S. crude oil, which is set to arrive at one of its refineries in June, a source with knowledge of the matter said. 

The shipment of close to 600,000 barrels of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Midland crude was loaded onto the Aframax tanker China Dawn on April 20 at the Enterprise Houston terminal, data from Refinitiv Eikon showed.

The cargo is scheduled to arrive at Cilacap on June 7, the data showed.

Pertamina purchased the cargo in a tender as the offer for the U.S. oil was more competitive than offers for African crude grades, the source said.

The purchase will also enable Pertamina to diversify its crude supplies so it doesn't have to rely solely on current sources, he added.

REFINERY

S-Oil Corp, South Korea's third-biggest oil refiner by capacity, said it expects refining margins to recover in the second quarter, supported by tighter supply of refined products as many peers take plants off line for regular maintenance work. 

 

NEWS

Saudi Arabia's energy minister said on Wednesday he saw no need to raise oil output immediately after the United States ends waivers granted to buyers of Iranian crude, but added that his country will respond to customers' needs if asked for more oil. 

Iran can export as much oil as it needs, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday, according to his official website. 

Global oil markets are adequately supplied and spare production capacity remained at comfortable levels, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday, while highlighting the need to avoid higher oil prices amid fragile global economic growth.

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