SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks Oman and Dubai held steady on Thursday, while more buying interests emerged from Asian refiners and spot premiums for Russian Sokol crude strengthened to an eight-month high.

Kuwait and Qatar have raised their April official selling price (OSP) for Asian buyers. 

China's Rongsheng issued its monthly crude purchase tender, to be closed on Friday.

Taiwan's CPC is seeking sweet crude for delivery over the second half of April to end-May, via its monthly procurement tender to be closed on Friday.

India's IOC is seeking May-loading sweet and sour crude via a tender to be closed on Friday with same-day validity.

Qatar Petroleum (QP) offered two cargoes of al-Shaheen crude, loading May 1-2 and May 28-29, via its monthly tender to be closed on March 15 with bids valid till March 16.

QP also offered one May-loading cargo each of Qatar Land and Qatar Marine via the monthly tender.

Bahrain's Bapco offered one May-loading cargo of Abu Safah crude via a tender to be closed on Friday with bids valid till March 15.

Via the market-on-close price assessment process, Exxon Mobil raised its offer for a May-loading cargo of Upper Zakum crude to $1.45 above Dubai quotes, up 20 cents from Wednesday's offer. The offer did not attract any buyers.

Mitsui made a bid for a May-loading cargo of Murban crude via RIM trading board at 35 cents above the grade's OSP, but did not attract any sellers.

 

ASIA-PACIFIC CRUDE:

Vietnam's PV Oil offered 300,000 barrels of Su Tu Den crude, loading May 15-21, via a tender to be closed on March 17 with bids valid till March 19.

PV Oil also offered 300,000 barrels of Ruby crude, loading May 16-23, via a tender to be closed on March 16 with bids valid till March 23.

 

RUSSIAN CRUDE:

Indian explorer ONGC Videsh has sold a cargo of Russian Sokol crude, loading May 13-19, at a higher spot premium via a tender, traders said.

The 700,000-barrel cargo was sold at about $2.80 a barrel above Dubai quotes, touching a fresh high since last July, to trading house Trafigura

 

NEWS

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia has yet to demonstrate a curb in supply as large as its promised voluntary production cut, according to two companies that track oil flows, a view dismissed by Riyadh which says it is reliable.

U.S. crude oil stockpiles jumped by nearly 14 million barrels last week while fuel inventories plunged, as production and refining output slowly came back online in the wake of the Texas winter storms, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. 

Guyana's government received $61.1 million for a Feb. 5 lift of around 997,420 million barrels of crude from the offshore Liza Destiny platform, the Natural Resources Ministry said on Wednesday, amounting to a price of $61.25 per barrel. 

BP's trading arm made nearly $4 billion in 2020, according to a copy of an internal BP presentation seen by Reuters, almost equalling the record trading profit in 2019 despite the collapse in oil demand caused by the pandemic. 

Commodities and energy pricing agency S&P Global Platts will defer changes to its core dated Brent oil benchmark after industry pressure, it said on Wednesday. 

Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday announced former BHP CEO Andrew Mackenzie as its next chairman who will help lead the energy company through a major shift away from oil and gas to low-carbon energy. 

Nigeria's petroleum regulator has provisionally awarded tenders to develop 57 of its marginal oilfields, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, which could net the government $500 million in signature bonuses.

(Reporting By Shu Zhang; Editing by Devika Syamnath) ((shu.zhang@thomsonreuters.com; +65-6870-3549; Reuters Messaging: Twitter @shuzhang4))#C-A ))