SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks held steady on Thursday although light grades remained mired in wide discounts on ample supplies.
MIDEAST: BP bought a Murban cargo from Total at 35 cents a barrel below its official selling price (OSP) on Platts window. The discount was 5 cents wider than the first deal seen on Monday.
PetroChina placed a bid for a March-loading Upper Zakum cargo at 35 cents a barrel above Dubai quotes, 10 cents higher than a deal earlier this week.
Qatar Petroleum has likely sold its three al-Shaheen crude cargoes at premiums between 47 cents and 60 cents a barrel to Dubai quotes, traders said. Buyers may have included JX, Unipec and Petro-Diamond, they said.
QP has also closed a tender to sell Al-Rayyan crude supplies for this year although results were not immediately known.
Iraq's SOMO has sold Basra crude loading in February at strong premiums via tenders, trade sources said.
The state oil marketer sold 2 million barrels of Basra Light crude to Unipec and 1 million barrels of Basra Heavy crude, likely to Exxon Mobil, they said.
The cargoes were sold at premiums of above $1 a barrel to the respective official selling prices (OSPs) for each grade, the sources said.
RUSSIA: Exxon Mobil may have sold two of the four Sokol cargoes it offered in a tender, a trader said. Prices and buyers were not immediately known.
Gazprom has sold an ESPO crude cargo loading on Feb. 2-12 at a premium of more than $3.20 a barrel to Dubai quotes to an unknown buyer, traders said. Paramount Energy also held a tender although details remained sketchy.
ASIA-PACIFIC CRUDE: Santos closed on Wednesday a rare tender to sell a spot cargo of Cooper Basin crude to load on March 19-23. The Australian producer is asking for bids of at least $7.95 a barrel above dated Brent for the 575,000-barrel cargo.
In Indonesia, Exxon Mobil Cepu Ltd is expected to produce 216,000 barrels per day of crude oil in 2019, making it Indonesia's biggest oil producer, the country's upstream oil and gas regulator (SKKMigas) said.
In second place, Chevron Pacific Indonesia is expected to produce 190,000 bpd of crude oil in 2019, SKKMigas chief Dwi Soetjipto told reporters on Wednesday.
Pertamina said earlier this week it will buy 2.5 million barrels of crude per month from Chevron in January-June 2019.
Crude purchases from Chevron and other companies will cut Pertamina's crude imports to around 250,000 bpd from 342,000 bpd, the company said.
WINDOW: Cash Dubai's premium to swaps edged down 1 cent to 32 cents. There was no trade for Dubai. Seller-Buyer Price Unipec-BP (Oman) 60.45 Unipec-BP (Oman) 60.45
REFINERY
South Korea's GS Caltex is expected to shut at least four units at its 800,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Yeosu refinery for maintenance between late April and June, two sources who closely track turnarounds said.
These include a crude distillation unit (CDU), a fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC), a hydrodesulfurization (HDS) unit and an alkylation unit which is needed to make high octane gasoline component.
NEWS
The Canadian province of Alberta's OPEC-style decision to force production cuts is benefiting oil companies with higher prices, but it is also pushing capital elsewhere and threatens to undermine booming crude-by-rail shipments.
Top Chinese energy group CNPC said on Thursday its global oil and gas trading unit recorded 12.7 percent growth in pre-tax profit last year from 2017, and its annual turnover hit 480 million tonnes.
China's crude oil output is set to remain flat in 2019 while its natural gas demand will rise 11 percent, according to a closely watched forecast from analysts at the country's largest oil and gas producer.
Fuel continues accumulating at Mexico's ports and storage terminals, the government and state-run Pemex said on Wednesday, as the government struggles to accelerate deliveries to gas stations via truck instead of speedier pipelines.
(Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Rashmi Aich) ((Florence.Tan@thomsonreuters.com; +65 6870 3497; Reuters Messaging: florence.tan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))t prices 0#C-A ))
