SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks Dubai slipped on Thursday as growing sour crude supplies from OPEC producers weighed on markets.

The weakness is reflected in Qatar Petroleum's al-Shaheen crude tender where November-loading.

Three cargoes were sold via tender at an average premium of $1.53 a barrel to Dubai quotes, they said.

QP has also set the term price for November-loading al-Shaheen crude at a premium of $1.58 a barrel, the sources said.

 

ASIA-PACIFIC CRUDE

Exports of Malaysia's flagship crude oil Kimanis will fall in October and November after a production issue at an offshore oilfield operated by Royal Dutch Shell, three sources with knowledge of the matter said. 

Petroleum Brunei, one of the stakeholders, cancelled a tender to sell a Kimanis crude cargo that was supposed to load in early November because of the problem, one of the sources said.

Kimanis crude production has fallen to about 117,000 barrels per day (bpd) and the volume of each cargo loading in October has also been trimmed, another of the sources said.

The loading dates for cargoes originally scheduled to be exported from the end of September to November have also been pushed back by three to 12 days, he added.

The outage will tighten Asia's sweet crude supplies, which could support prices for similar exports from Vietnam and the Atlantic Basin, traders said.

 

RUSSIAN CRUDE

China's rebounding crude demand has pushed up prices of a Russian grade popular with Chinese independent refiners to the highest in 21 months, several 

Russia's Surgutneftegaz sold three cargoes of ESPO crude loading in November at premiums from $4.00 to above $4.20 a barrel to Dubai quotes, the sources said, the highest since January 2020.

European trader Mercuria may have won the tender, the sources said, while one of the cargoes was sold to Japan's Itochu, traders added.

"Demand is healthy and margins are good," said the source, adding that fresh demand for ESPO crude also came from a new Chinese refiner.

Jiangsu Eastern Shenghong Co Ltd, which received its first crude import quota of 2 million tonnes this month, is buying ESPO crude in addition to Saudi oil for trial runs at its new refinery, a trading source close to the company said.

 

REFINERY

Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote is in talks with some of the world's biggest oil traders to help finance his mega refinery project outside of Nigeria's commercial centre Lagos, sources with knowledge of the matter said, although his company denied the discussions.

 

NEWS

Libya's National Oil Corp (NOC) on Thursday said that a blockade of the Es Sider and Ras Lanuf oil terminals had ended and that export operations had returned to normal. 

India's gasoil consumption slowed in the first half of September from the previous month, staying below pre-COVID levels as a pick-up in monsoon rains hit mobility and demand for fuel from the agriculture sector, preliminary sales data showed. 

U.S. crude oil and fuel stockpiles dropped sharply last week, as refiners in the U.S. Gulf region and oil facilities offshore were still recovering from Hurricane Ida's hit late August, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel) ((Florence.Tan@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: florence.tan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))