SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks Oman and Dubai fell for a second straight session on Monday as Asia's demand for physical oil shows signs of cooling down.
Spot premium for Russian Sokol crude, loading end-August to early-September, dropped to around $2.80 a barrel to Dubai quotes in the latest ONGC tender.
Total sold an August-loading light sour Murban crude to Mercuria at a discount of 70 cents a barrel to its official selling price via Window.
ASIA-PACIFIC & RUSSIAN CRUDE:
Taiwan's CPC has closed a tender seeking sweet crude for September arrival with bids valid until Wednesday.
Thailand's IPRC is seeking 300,000 barrels-1 million barrels of sweet crude for delivery over Aug. 20 to Sept. 10 in a tender closing on Tuesday with bids valid until Wednesday.
Vietnam's PV Oil has offered 900,000 barrels of Bach Ho Light crude, loading on Aug. 12-25, via a spot tender with bids valid until Wednesday.
Russia's Gazprom has offered a cargo of ESPO crude loading on Aug. 3-15 via a tender closing on Monday.
REFINERY
Japan's Cosmo Oil, a unit of Cosmo Energy Holdings Co Ltd, restarted the 75,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) No.1 crude distillation unit (CDU) at the Chiba refinery on June 16 after planned maintenance, a company spokesman said on Monday.
NEWS
After weeks of rising, prices of physical oil have begun to ease, traders and analysts say, as the rally succumbs to the reality of poor refinery margins and brimming storage tanks.
Energy companies can apply to explore for oil and gas in 36 new exploration blocks off Norway, the country's oil and energy ministry said on Friday.
(Reporting by Shu Zhang, Editing by Subhranshu Sahu) ((shu.zhang@thomsonreuters.com; +65-6870-3549; Reuters Messaging: Twitter @shuzhang4))rices 0#C-A ))
