SINGAPORE: The Middle East crude market stayed firm on Wednesday as Chinaoil snapped up another five cargoes, raising its purchases this month to 13.5 million barrels.
The trading arm of PetroChina bought 84 Dubai partials which led to the delivery of five cargoes on the Platts window, traders said. Vitol and Total will deliver two Upper Zakum cargoes, they said. In addition, Chinaoil will receive three Oman, one from Shell and two from Unipec.
Strong demand from Chinaoil has pushed up Oman's spot premium to the highest in 2-1/2 months, lifting values for other Middle Eastern grades.
Qatari al-Shaheen for December loading has been sold at 70 cents to $1 a barrel below Dubai quotes, traders said, against discounts of $2-$2.50 a barrel last month.
Tasweeq closed a tender on Wednesday to sell another six al-Shaheen cargoes.
Kuwait has maintained a wide discount between the crude it sells to Asia against a comparable Saudi Arabian grade for November, amid increasing signs that Gulf producers are engaged in a price war to compete for market share.
Kuwaiti crude for November was priced at a discount of 50 cents per barrel to Saudi Arab Medium, unchanged from a month ago and the widest in 10 years.
The official selling price (OSP) for Kuwaiti crude oil sales to Asian buyers for November was set at $3.05 a barrel below the average of Oman/Dubai quotes, down $0.70 from the previous month, a trade source said.
DME OMAN
DME Oman for December settled at $83.74, down $4.28, at 0830 GMT. This puts DME Oman at $1.10 a barrel above Dubai swaps against a 55-cent premium from the previous session.
MARKET NEWS
Saudi Arabia effectively started a global oil price war this month aimed at quickly denting US oil output. Slowing a US drilling boom, however, could take more than a year.
Iran, in a change of tack, is saying it can live with lower oil prices, moving closer to the views of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf OPEC members and reducing the likelihood of any collective cut in OPEC output to support prices.
India's oil imports from Iran rose 38 percent in the first nine months of the year as shipments surged with an easing of Western sanctions over Tehran's suspected nuclear activities, tanker arrival data obtained from trade sources shows.
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