SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks Oman and Dubai inched up on Thursday as the front-month November trading cycle approaches its end.
Taiwanese refiner CPC bought four million barrels of U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Midland crude for December delivery via a monthly spot tender, trader sources said. The crude was bought at a premium of about $1.5 a barrel and above dated Brent on a cost-and-freight basis, one of the sources said.
Vietnam's PV Oil sold a cargo of Ruby crude, loading Nov. 9 to 16, at a small discount to dated Brent to oil major Shell, traders said.
Malaysia's Petronas sold a cargo of Bunga Orkid, loading Nov. 23 to 27, at a small premium to dated Brent to Thai refiner PTT, traders said.
NEWS
Iraq's oil ministry on Thursday denied a media report citing Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar as saying an agreement was imminent with the OPEC+ group to increase Iraq's crude oil exports.
U.S. prosecutors charged a former U.S. employee of a Swiss energy trading firm with bribery and a Florida company pleaded guilty to bribery as a probe into corruption in energy trading widened in the United States.
A jump in weekly net import volumes lifted Singapore's residual fuel oil inventories by 11% to a five-week high in the week ended Sept. 23, official data showed on Thursday.
Saudi Arabia warned the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that an "oil spot" had been seen in a shipping transit area 31 miles (50 km) west of a decaying tanker that is threatening to spill 1.1 million barrels of crude oil off the coast of Yemen.
(Reporting by Shu Zhang; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi) ((shu.zhang@thomsonreuters.com; +65-6870-3549; Reuters Messaging: Twitter @shuzhang4))
