SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks Oman and Dubai rose on Wednesday to touch their highest since late July, as Singapore refining margins strengthened on winter demand.

Asia's cracks for fuel oil and middle distillates this month hit multi-month highs.

The Brent/Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS) DUB-EFS-1M rose to a near three-month high of 41 cents at Singapore market's close, from 34 cents a day earlier, Refinitiv data showed, as Brent gained on hopes of an effective COVID-19 vaccine. 

Oil producer Kuwait has set the December official selling price (OSP) for Kuwait Export Crude (KEC) at 40 cents per barrel below the average of DME Oman and Platts Dubai quotes for Asian refiners, up 10 cents from the previous month. 

Qatar Petroleum has set the December OSP for its Qatar Marine crude at 65 cents a barrel below the average of Platts Oman and Dubai quotes, down 5 cents from the previous month, while keeping Qatar Land OSP unchanged at 75 cents a barrel below Oman/Dubai.

 

REFINERY

Royal Dutch Shell will halve crude processing capacity and cut jobs at its Pulau Bukom oil refinery in Singapore as part of an overhaul to reduce its carbon emissions. 

 

NEWS

Saudi Arabia and Iraq agreed on Tuesday on coordinating positions in the oil sector within the scope of work of OPEC and OPEC+ and to fully commit to all decisions that have been agreed upon in a manner that guarantees reaching fair and appropriate oil prices for exporters and consumers, Saudi state news agency said, citing a joint statement.

Iran's oil exports averaged 600,000 to 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) since March despite U.S. sanctions on its energy industry, an Iranian official said on Wednesday, far exceeding estimates by agencies monitoring the country's crude sales. 

U.S. crude oil production is expected to fall by 860,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2020 to 11.39 million bpd, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Tuesday, a bigger decline than its previous forecast for a drop of 800,000 bpd. 

Oil refiners are permanently closing processing plants in Asia and North America and facilities in Europe could be next because of the uncertain prospects for a recovery in fuel demand after the coronavirus pandemic cut consumption. 

Occidental Petroleum Corp on Tuesday laid out a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at its operations to net zero by 2040, becoming the latest oil and gas company to set long-term climate goals. 

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