SINGAPORE: All eyes were on Saudi Arabia's official selling prices (OSP) expected this week in the Middle East crude market, after ADNOC left its monthly price differentials largely unchanged.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) lowered the November retroactive selling price for its benchmark Murban crude by $10.35, setting it at $77.00 a barrel.
That puts the differential to Dubai 5 cents lower than the previous month.
The differential for Upper Zakum to Dubai was also lowered by 5 cent, while Das Blend was raised by 5 cent.
Some refiners had expected larger cuts for Abu Dhabi grades. But ADNOC may have reacted to improving refining margins and generally better sentiment after most January cargoes were sold at higher differentials than the previous month.
Saudi Aramco is expected to publish its OSP for January exports this week, with traders forecasting big price cuts of $2-$3 a barrel.
Trading for January-loading cargoes will begin later this month.
Iraq's government and Kurdish authorities agreed on Tuesday to export 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Kirkuk and 250,000 bpd from the northern Kurdish region through Turkey.
TENDERS
State-run Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp (JOGMEC) issued a tender on Tuesday to buy about 629,000 barrels, equivalent to 100,000 kilolitres, of Middle Eastern light crude for the government's Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR).
JOGMEC will hold the tender on Dec. 16, with offers to be opened on the same day, the tender document showed. The barrels are to be delivered to the Shibushi national oil storage base in Kagoshima, southern Japan, between Feb. 20 and March 5.
DME OMAN
DME Oman for February settled at $70.55 a barrel, up $3.27, at 0830 GMT. This puts DME Oman at 23 cents a barrel below Dubai swaps, down from a premium of 35 cents in the previous session.
MARKET NEWS
Offshore drillers globally are increasingly considering "warm stacking" their rigs to take them temporarily off the market, as they gear up for a slowdown in the hunt for oil with crude prices sliding to five-year lows.
Indonesia's new administration plans a major expansion of oil storage and will construct more refineries as part of sweeping energy reforms that will also help in cracking down on any corruption in the state oil trader.
Monthly oil output in Russia rose in November month on month to 10.63 million barrels per day (bpd), equalling the post-Soviet high, data on Tuesday showed.
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