SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks Oman and Dubai rose for a third straight session on Tuesday as more Gulf producers followed Saudi Arabia to raise June official selling prices (OSPs) for Asia and as Asia's spot discount for Russian Sokol crude sharply narrowed.

Iraq has raised the June OSP for Basra Light crude to Asia by $2.00 to minus $4.55 a barrel against the average of Oman/Dubai quotes from the previous month. 

Basra Heavy to Asia in the same month was priced at minus $6.20 a barrel to Oman/Dubai quotes, up $2.10 from the previous month.

Iran has set the OSP of Iranian Light grade for its Asian buyers at $4.90 a barrel below the Oman/Dubai average for June, up $2.30 from the previous month, an industry source told Reuters on Tuesday.

Qatar Petroleum (QP) has offered two cargoes of al-Shaheen crude loading July 3-4 and July 13-14, and one July-loading Qatar Land crude cargo via its monthly tender closing on Wednesday with bids valid till Thursday.

Total has sold 1 million barrels of June-loading Basra Light crude to a Chinese buyer at a spot premium of $2 a barrel to its OSP in a pre-programme trade, traders said.

 

RUSSIAN & ASIA-PACIFIC CRUDE:

Indian oil explorer ONGC has sold one Russian Sokol crude cargo loading July 7-13 at a spot discount of around $1.95 a barrel to Dubai quotes to a trader, traders said. 

Indonesia's Pertamina has offered 500,000 to 600,000 barrels of Banyu Urip crude loading June 5-30 in a tender closing on Tuesday with bids valid till Wednesday.

Vietnam's PV Oil has offered 300,000 barrels of Ruby crude loading July 19-26 in a tender closing on May 19 with bids valid till May 26.

 

REFINERY

Indian refiners are scaling up crude processing as local fuel demand begins to improve with a gradual easing of the lockdown aimed at stemming the spread of coronavirus, company officials said. 

 

NEWS

Saudi Arabian state oil giant Aramco on Tuesday reported a 25% fall in first-quarter net profit, missing analyst estimates, but its quarterly dividend was in line with a plan for a $75 billion base payout to shareholders for the year. 

Russian oil and gas condensate production declined to 9.45 million barrels per day (bpd) on May 1-11, sources familiar with the data told Reuters on Tuesday, following a global deal on output cuts.

Saudi Arabia will voluntarily deepen oil output cuts from June as low oil prices are causing huge pain to the kingdom's budget and global demand remains weak due to lockdowns to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

U.S. shale producers Continental Resources Inc and Callon Petroleum Co on Monday joined their peers in cutting production as the coronavirus crisis slashed oil prices and demand for fuel. 

None of the big oil companies currently meet U.N. targets to limit global warming despite the most ambitious targets set by Royal Dutch Shell and Eni, investors managing $19 trillion said on Tuesday.

China's Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) said on Tuesday it will add 100,000 cubic metres of storage capacity at the crude oil futures delivery warehouse of a Sinopec Group unit.

The Norwegian government has sharply cut its oil price forecast and the expected cash flow it will get from the oil and gas industry amid the plunge in global demand, its revised 2020 fiscal budget showed on Tuesday. 

(Reporting By Shu Zhang; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel) ((shu.zhang@thomsonreuters.com; +65-6870-3549; Reuters Messaging: Twitter @shuzhang4))