SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks Oman and Dubai recovered on Thursday after two sessions of losses, while trade for October-loading cargoes kick-started with Abu Dhabi's Umm Lulu.

The light sour crude has been sold to Japanese and Chinese refiners at premiums of just under $2.60 a barrel to Dubai quotes, traders said. The premiums were about $1 a barrel lower than previous month's levels, one of them said.

The drop in Umm Lulu's spot premium follows that of ICE Murban and Russian Sokol crude, which are of similar quality.

ONGC issued a tender to sell a second Sokol crude cargo that will load on Oct. 26. The tender will close on Aug. 17.

Iraq's SOMO will close a tender later on Thursday to sell 2 million barrels of Basra Medium crude.

Separately, Iran has set the official selling price (OSP) of its Iranian Light grade for its Asian buyers for September at $2.65 above the Oman/Dubai average, up 25 cents from the previous month, industry sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Thursday. 

 

NEWS

Rising demand for oil abruptly reversed course in July and is set to proceed more slowly for the rest of the year due to the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday. 

U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil Corp, along with Chevron Corp, is seeking to bulk up in the burgeoning renewable fuels space by finding ways to make such products at existing facilities, sources familiar with the efforts said. 

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration on Wednesday urged OPEC and its allies to boost oil output to tackle rising gasoline prices that they see as a threat to the global economic recovery. 

Belgium's Euronav, which provides shipping and storage services for crude oil, swung to a second-quarter loss, it said on Thursday, as recovering demand for oil and easing production cuts had yet to lead to better shipping rates. 

Moves to mitigate climate change are drawing peak oil demand closer, current and former OPEC officials told Reuters, potentially giving OPEC's biggest players and their allies more power and leaving some smaller producers struggling. 

(Reporting by Florence Tan, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips) ((Florence.Tan@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: florence.tan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))