SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks were mixed on Wednesday with DME Oman's premium to Dubai edging up 2 cents a barrel while cash Dubai weakened.
MIDEAST: Iraq's SOMO may have awarded a tender to sell 1 million barrels of Basra Heavy crude loading in December to Repsol at 15 cents a barrel above its OSP, a trader said. The deal could not be independently verified.
RUSSIA: ESPO crude premiums continued to climb as the Brent-Dubai spread widened further. Gazprom sold an ESPO cargo loading Feb. 3-13 via a tender at a premium of $3.25-$3.30 a barrel to an unknown buyer, traders said.
More ESPO are expected to move next week when the loading programme is finalised.
ASIA-PACIFIC CRUDE: China's Fuhaichuang, formerly Dragon Aromatics, may have bought two Australian condensate cargoes for February delivery, including a North West Shelf (NWS) condensate , traders said.
Mitsui has bought the only Pyrenees cargo loading in February at a premium of more than $4 a barrel to dated Brent, traders said.
More regional crude tenders are due to be awarded by the end of this week.
Dubai has set its official differential to Oman futures 1OQc1 for March at a discount of $0.10 per barrel, the Dubai Department of Petroleum Affairs said on Wednesday.
MOVES: Singapore-based oil trading firm Concord Energy said on Wednesday former Gunvor trader Julien La Chon has joined Concord as a partner and its chief executive officer.
"Julien will lead the Concord team and expand the breadth of trading and energy related projects to bring the company into the next levels of growth," Concord's Chairman and owner Nasrat Muzayyin told Reuters in an email.
Muzayyin added that the company plans to start trading liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Several trade sources said La Chon has bought a stake in Concord Energy and has hired an LNG trader to kick-start the company's LNG trading business.
Muzayyin and La Chon declined to comment on the stake sale.
NEWS
Russia's oil output may decline next year due to a global reduction pact, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Tuesday, possibly halting an uninterrupted decade-long run of growth.
Russia's crude oil exports and transit volumes from Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are set to fall to 61.7 million tonnes in the first quarter of 2019 from 63.8 million in the final quarter of this year, a quarterly schedule issued by the Energy Ministry seen by Reuters showed.
Saudi Arabia's crude oil exports in Oct rose to 7.700 million barrels per day from 7.433 million bpd in Sept, official data showed on Tuesday.
Oman is seeking international energy partners to develop its ultra-heavy Habhab oilfield, according to the Oman Observer.
Falling U.S. crude futures CLc1 on Tuesday pushed spot prices in Midland, Texas to less than $40 per barrel, below break-even levels for U.S. oil producers in the Permian Basin, the nation's largest oil patch.
Vietnam has arrested a former senior executive of a state-owned oil company for "abusing power to appropriate property", state media reported.
(Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar) ((Florence.Tan@thomsonreuters.com; +65 6870 3497; Reuters Messaging: florence.tan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))0#C-A ))
