SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks Oman and Dubai fell on Monday for a third straight session, tracking losses in global oil futures, as traders waited to see if major producers would cut output further to balance markets after China's coronavirus outbreak.

Prompt Dubai inter-month swaps fell deeper into their contango structure. The March/April Dubai inter-month spread went down to minus 28 cents a barrel at the Singapore market's close on Monday, Refinitiv data showed, compared with minus 9 cents a barrel at last Friday's close. 

Iran has set the official selling price (OSP) of its Iranian Light grade for its Asian buyers in March at a premium of $2.55 a barrel above the Oman/Dubai average, down 80 cents from the previous month, a pricing document showed on Monday. 

 

ASIA-PACIFIC CRUDE:

Indian oil explorer ONGC Videsh has sold one cargo of Russian Sokol crude SOK-DUB loading April 8-14 at a premium of around $4.30 a barrel to Dubai quotes to China's Unipec, traders said. The premium is the lowest since April 2019. 

Vietnam's PV Oil sold one cargo of Dai Hung crude loading April 1-7 to Thai refiner PTT at a premium of around $6.20-6.40 a barrel to dated Brent via a spot tender, traders said. 

Indonesia has set the official Indonesia Crude Price (ICP) for Minas crude oil at $65.77 a barrel for January, down $1.84 from the previous month, a pricing document showed on Monday.

 

REFINERY

PetroChina, China's second-biggest state refiner, plans to reduce its crude throughput by 320,000 barrels per day (bpd) this month versus its original plan as the Wuhan virus hits fuel demand, a company official told Reuters on Monday. 

 

 

NEWS

An OPEC, non-OPEC technical panel has recommended extending a current oil supply cut pact until the end of 2020 and more output reductions due to the impact of the coronavirus on oil demand, Algeria's oil minister said in a statement. 

Oman's oil minister said on Saturday that his country supports the recommendations made by an OPEC+ technical panel for a short, deeper oil output cut until the end of June. 

Iraq's Basra Oil Co will cut crude oil output at the Nahr Bin Omar field to a minimum because of pollution and gas emissions, state news agency reported on Sunday. 

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