SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks Oman and Dubai were mixed on Thursday, with trading activity largely muted as market participants awaited the release of fresh monthly official selling prices (OSPs) from producers.

Dubai, as quoted by price-reporting agency S&P Global Platts, fell in September to an average of $41.495 a barrel, the lowest since June. 

 

ASIA-PACIFIC CRUDE:

The OSP of a basket of September-loading Malaysian crude oil grades OSP/MY has been set at $44.21 a barrel, down $4.16 a barrel from $48.37 for August, Malaysian state oil firm Petronas said in a pricing document released on Thursday. 

 

 

NEWS

BP has terminated four trading and operations staff responsible for Chinese crude oil sales as a result of an internal investigation into trades with Singapore's Hontop Energy, three people familiar with the matter said. 

Russian oil and gas condensate production edged up to 9.93 million barrels per day (bpd) from an average of 9.86 million bpd in August, two sources familiar with the preliminary data told Reuters.

OPEC oil output has risen for a third month in September, a Reuters survey found, as a restart of some Libyan installations and higher Iranian exports offset strong adherence by other members to an OPEC-led supply cut deal. 

U.S. crude stocks and distillate inventories fell in the latest week as refiners picked up processing rates, though fuel demand weakened, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

Marathon Petroleum Corp, the top U.S. oil refiner, is cutting 12% of its workforce amid continued declines in fuel consumption due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it said on Wednesday.

South Korea's September crude oil imports fell 2.2% to 77.6 million barrels from a year earlier, preliminary data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy showed on Thursday.

(Reporting By Shu Zhang; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu) ((shu.zhang@thomsonreuters.com; +65-6870-3549; Reuters Messaging: Twitter @shuzhang4))