SINGAPORE- The Middle East crude benchmarks were mixed on Wednesday as Oman rebounded, after dropping to its lowest premium against Dubai swaps this month, while Dubai was little changed.

DME Oman's premium to swaps rose 16 cents to $1.71 a barrel as the low premium in the previous session likely drew buyers.

Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical bought about 300,000 barrels of Oman crude via a tender on Tuesday at about $1.50 a barrel above Dubai quotes.

QATAR: Qatar Petroleum has sold two al-Shaheen crude cargoes for December loading at lower premiums than the previous month, tracking weakness in the Middle East market, trade sources said.

The producer sold the 500,000-barrel cargoes at an average premium of $1.10 a barrel to Dubai quotes, they said, down from $1.55 in the previous month.

Chevron and JX Nippon may have bought the cargoes, one of the sources said. The cargoes will load on Dec. 7-8 and Dec. 26-27.

 

UAE: Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) started producing and exporting a new crude grade known as Umm Lulu this month, a company spokesman said. 

ADNOC has sold two 500,000-barrel cargoes of the crude loading in November to South Korea's GS Caltex and India's Reliance Industries at close to parity to the official selling price (OSP) for Das Blend, trade sources said.

KUWAIT: Kuwait Petroleum Corp set the price for Kuwait Super Light Crude (KSLC) at $2.30 a barrel above Oman-Dubai quotes for October and at a premium of $3.05 a barrel for November, a source with knowledge of the matter said. 

The official KSLC selling prices (OSPs) were competitive, an Asian crude buyer said, as they were in between the prices for two Saudi light grades.

KSLC's OSPs are more than $2 a barrel below that of Saudi's Arab Super Light crude and 50 cents a barrel higher than Saudi's Arab Extra Light, Reuters data showed.

RUSSIA: Surgutneftegaz has sold two ESPO crude cargoes loading in early December at lower premiums than the previous month as China's demand cools towards the year-end, trade sources said. 

The cargoes were sold at premiums of $5.50-$5.60 a barrel to Dubai quotes to Unipec and Vitol, they said, versus earlier deals at premiums of $5.90-$6.50.

 

REFINERY

The Chinese city of Zhoushan is in talks with oil major Exxon Mobil Corp to build a $7 billion ethylene plant in the city south of Shanghai, it said in a statement released on Wednesday. 

 

NEWS

Saudi Aramco said the Yanbu South Terminal has added 3 million barrels per day of crude oil to the company's west coast export capacity after a rehabilitation and upgrade programme. 

OPEC has urged its members not to mention oil prices when discussing policy in a break from the past, as the producer group seeks to avoid the risk of U.S. legal action for manipulating the market, sources close to OPEC said. 

Statements by the United States that it would reduce Iran's oil exports to zero are a "political bluff", the head of state-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said, according to a report published by Tasnim news agency. 

OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo on Tuesday urged oil producing companies to increase capacities and invest more to meet future demand as spare oil capacity shrinks worldwide. 

Ship owners accelerated installations of engine cleaning systems this year ahead of stringent new rules in 2020 which sharply reduce the amount of sulphur ships can emit from the 3.5 percent in current bunker fuel to 0.5 percent, according to a report.