SINGAPORE: DME Oman weakened against Dubai in the Middle East crude market on Monday as trade for February cargoes wound down.
Most cargoes traded at higher differentials this month as buyers were lured by lower official selling prices (OSPs) and refiners' profits were boosted by lower flat prices.
Chinaoil bought a February Oman partial from Shell at $55.70 a barrel. It also sold a February Dubai partial to Shell at $55.65 a barrel.
The result of a tender by Rosneft to sell five ESPO cargoes loading in February is expected this week. Differentials for the Russian grade this month improved to around $3 a barrel above Dubai quotes, supported by high costs of shipping of competing grades to the region.
DME OMAN
DME Oman for February settled at $55.48 a barrel, down $1.23, at 0830 GMT. This puts DME Oman at $2.63 a barrel below Dubai swaps, down from a discount of $1.25 in the previous session.
MARKET NEWS
China is raising the threshold for a windfall tax on crude oil production to $65 a barrel starting Jan. 1, the government announced on Sunday, versus $55 previously, to help ease oil firms' tax burdens as global crude markets sank below $60.
Algeria said on Sunday that OPEC should cut production to push oil prices up, adding that it did not share the views of big producers inside the cartel who prefer to let the market regulate prices, energy minister Youcef Yousfi was quoted as saying by the official APS news agency.
Saudi Arabia's 2015 state budget assumes an oil price close to current levels of around $60 a barrel for Brent crude , a shift from past budgets which were based on prices well below market levels, analysts say.
Japan's total oil product sales fell 7.8 percent in November from a year earlier to 3.26 million barrels per day (15.55 million kilolitres), the lowest for the month since 1985, trade ministry data showed on Friday.
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