SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks Oman and Dubai were little changed on Monday, while June-loading Russian ESPO Blend crude, a China-focused grade, fetched steady premiums in the latest Surgutneftegaz tender.
Surgut sold five June-loading cargoes of ESPO Blend crude at premiums of $2.1-$2.5 a barrel to Dubai quotes via its second spot tender this month, traders said.
Gunvor and Mercuria each bought two of the cargoes, while Vitol took one.
Gazprom Neft closed a tender to sell one ESPO crude cargo loading June 1-14.
Japan's Fuji Oil bought one June-loading cargo of Banoco Arab Medium at a discount of around 20 cents to OSP via a tender, traders said.
Iraq's SOMO awarded 1 million barrels of Basra Medium crude, loading May 29-31, at a spot premium of around 30 cents to OSP, traders said. The deal could not be independently verified by Reuters.
Thailand's IRPC closed a tender seeking June-loading sour crude.
Taiwan's CPC is seeking June-loading sour crude via a tender closing on Tuesday with bids valid till Thursday.
Indonesia's Pertamina will also close a crude purchase tender on Tuesday.
NEWS
French bank Natixis said it plans to stop financing the trading of Ecuadorian crude oil by 2022, after pressure from campaigners over the trade's links to environmental damage in the Amazon.
China's diesel exports in March hovered near a record level, data showed on Sunday, as companies battled to ease brimming domestic inventories.
Russia's Rosneft issued a spot tender to sell 90,000 tonnes of CPC Blend crude oil loading from Black Sea's Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka terminal on May 25-26 in a spot tender, two traders familiar with the tender told Reuters.
(Reporting By Shu Zhang; Editing by Rashmi Aich) ((shu.zhang@thomsonreuters.com; +65-6870-3549; Reuters Messaging: Twitter @shuzhang4))
