SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks Oman and Dubai fell on Thursday, after OPEC and allies agreed to ease record oil supply curbs from August, while Asia's spot premiums for Qatari and Russian crude grades also weakened.

Qatar Petroleum (QP) sold two cargoes of al-Shaheen crude, loading during Sept. 1-2 and Sept. 28-29, at an average premium of $1.46 a barrel to Dubai quotes via its monthly spot tender. 

QP also sold two or three cargoes of Low Sulphur Condensate at small premiums to Dubai quotes via a tender.

Russian oil producer Surgutneftegaz sold two cargoes of ESPO Blend crude for loading during Aug. 31-Sept. 5 and Sept. 3-9 at lower premiums of around $2.10-$2.20 a barrel to Dubai quotes via its first spot tender this month. 

Surgut is closing its second tender on Thursday to sell two more ESPO crude cargoes loading Sept 8-15 and Sept. 11-18.

ONGC sold a Russian Sokol crude cargo, loading Sept. 27-Oct. 3, at a spot premium of around $2.40-$2.50 a barrel to Dubai quotes to via its second spot tender this month. 

Iraq's SOMO will close a tender on Friday to sell 1 million barrels of Basra Light crude loading Aug. 29-31.

 

ASIA-PACIFIC CRUDE:

Australian heavy sweet crude grades Pyrenees and Vincent, which traders use to blend into very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO), fetched higher premiums of above $8 a barrel to dated Brent via spot tenders.

 

REFINERY

China's daily crude oil throughput in June surged to the highest level on record, official data showed, as refiners ramped up processing on healthy margins and a recovery in demand for gasoline and diesel.

The Maoming Petrochemical Co of China's Sinopec has shut a 100,000 barrels-per-day crude oil processing facility and five units for planned maintenance, according to Sinopec's website and an official at Maoming. 

 

NEWS

OPEC and allies such as Russia agreed on Wednesday to ease record oil supply curbs from August as the global economy slowly recovers from the coronavirus pandemic but said a second wave of the virus could complicate rebalancing in the market. 

Talks about selling a 20% stake in Reliance Industries Ltd's oil-to-chemical business to Saudi Aramco have stalled over the valuation, four sources familiar with the matter said, as the energy market has been hit by COVID-19.

A group of the world's top oil companies, including Saudi Aramco, China's CNPC and Exxon Mobil, have for the first time set goals to cut their greenhouse gas emissions as a proportion of output, as pressure on the sector's climate stance grows. 

U.S. crude oil and refined product inventories fell sharply in last week due in part to a notable drop in crude imports, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. 

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