SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks Oman and Dubai rose on Monday, while an open arbitrage for U.S. crude to flow into Asia pressured light sour grades, traders said.

The world's largest oil exporter Saudi Aramco has reduced the volume of July-loading crude that it will supply to at least five buyers in Asia, sources told Reuters. The cuts were mainly for medium and heavy grades and were smaller than what they had received in June. 

Qatar Petroleum offered two cargoes of al-Shaheen crude loading on Aug. 2-3 and Aug. 29-30 in a tender closing on Tuesday with bids valid until Wednesday.

Abu Dhabi's light sour crude Das Blend and Murban were offered by sellers at spot discounts to their official selling prices (OSPs).

Total offered an August-loading Das Blend crude cargo at a discount of 25 cents a barrel to its OSP and an August-loading Murban crude cargo at a discount of 20 cents a barrel to its OSP, but did not attract any buyers.

BP offered an August-loading Murban crude cargo at a discount of 20 cents a barrel to its OSP via RIM Trading Board, but did not attract any buyers.

 

ASIA-PACIFIC CRUDE:

Malaysia's Kimanis crude oil supply will rise to 10 cargoes in August, compared with six cargoes in July, a preliminary programme showed.

Russia's Surgut offered two cargoes of ESPO crude loading on July 31-Aug. 5 and Aug. 4-9 in a tender closing on Monday.

Australia's BHP offered a cargo of Pyrenees crude loading on Aug. 19-23 in a tender closing and valid on Tuesday.

 

REFINERY

China's crude oil throughput in May rose 8.2% from a year earlier as independent refiners increased their processing to meet the recovery in fuel demand following the easing of coronavirus lockdowns. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2DS0QQ

 

NEWS

BP will write off up to $17.5 billion from the value of its assets after cutting its long-term oil and gas price forecasts, betting the COVID-19 crisis will cast a lasting chill on energy demand and accelerate a shift away from fossil fuels. 

South Korea's U.S. crude oil imports fell in May to their lowest since November 2018 as some refiners conducted maintenance amid a demand slowdown as fuel use was hit by the coronavirus pandemic, customs data showed on Monday. 

Iraq has agreed with major oil companies operating its giant southern oilfields to cut crude production further in June, Iraqi officials working at the fields told Reuters on Sunday. 

Taiwan imported 23.75 million barrels of crude in April, down 8.7 percent from a month ago, government data showed on Monday. 

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