SINGAPORE: The Middle East crude benchmark Dubai bounced higher on Wednesday, buoyed by Chinaoil's purchases.
Cash Dubai's discount to swaps narrowed 13 cents from the previous session after the trading arm of PetroChina bought six partials from Reliance, Shell and Totsa during the Platts MoC process, traders said.
Following the deals, Shell will deliver an al-Shaheen cargo to Chinaoil, they said. This is the fifth al-Shaheen cargo that Chinaoil has purchased during the MoC process this month.
China's robust demand for Russian ESPO has pushed its premium to the highest since May 2014.
Rosneft sold two cargoes via its tender to ChemChina at premiums between $5.20 and $5.30 a barrel to Dubai quotes, traders said. The cargoes will load on March 5-10 and 13-18. Trafigura has likely sold a second ESPO cargo loading in March although details were not immediately known.
North Sea Forties oil flow to Asia will be curbed in March as the British North Sea port of Hound Point will not load any of the crude on any supertankers because of maintenance work on Jetty 1.
Efforts by Iran to start exporting oil to Europe are being held up as foreign tanker owners are still struggling to secure insurance for cargoes, leading shipping players said on Tuesday.
DME OMAN
DME Oman futures for March settled at $27.02, up $1.62, at 0830 GMT. This put DME Oman at $0.95 a barrel below Dubai swaps, down from a discount of $0.82 in the previous session.
MARKET NEWS
OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia and top non-OPEC producer Russia are showing signs of flexibility about agreeing to tackle an oil glut that has pushed prices to 12-year lows, the oil minister of Iraq said on Tuesday.
Rating agency Standard and Poor's (S&P) on Tuesday downgraded several oil and gas companies in the Asia-Pacific region as a lower oil price forecast undermines the sector's revenue and credit outlook.
After a 2015 that famed oil bull Andrew Hall said "wasn't much fun" because of plunging crude prices, the chief of Astenbeck Commodities says the market is ripe for a jump as producers operate near maximum capacity while supply risks rise.
Vietnam's crude oil exports this month fell 21.4 percent from a year ago to an estimated 640,000 tonnes, or 151,000 barrels per day (bpd), the government said on Wednesday.
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