SINGAPORE: The Middle East crude market strengthened slightly on Tuesday as DME Oman's discount to Dubai narrowed.
Cash Dubai also remained supported after Shell bought six partials, including four from Chinaoil at $53.10 a barrel, on the window.
Traders are waiting for the release of official selling prices to gauge the price direction for April-loading grades that will trade this week.
UAE's ADNOC is likely to be the first to release prices. The Abu Dhabi producer is expected to raise the retroactive OSP differentials to Dubai for Murban and Das in January by about 30 and 50 cents a barrel, respectively, while that for Upper Zakum could also rise slightly, traders said.
Qatar is likely to cut the January OSP differential to Dubai for its Marine crude after the grade was traded at discounts between 30 and 50 cents a barrel, they said.
Asia's imports from West Africa are set to rise in February on an improvement in refining margins and a narrower Brent-Dubai spread.
DME OMAN
DME Oman for April settled at $53.77, up $4.14, at 0830 GMT. This puts DME Oman at $1.25 a barrel below Dubai swaps against a discount of $1.45 a barrel in the previous session.
STORAGE
World's largest independent storage company Vopak will start operations at the first commercial crude oil tank farm in southeast Asia in March, a top company official said on Tuesday.
Located in Pengerang, in the southern state of Johor, the facilities can store 420,000 cubic metres of crude (2.6 million barrels) and also allow for blending and distribution services.
BP has leased more than half of the storage space from Vopak, while Total will use the remainder, industry sources familiar with the matter said.
CEFC China Energy, a small chemicals and fuel company, is beefing up its oil business to get ready for more open domestic oil markets, hiring trading managers from state energy giants, building storage tanks and looking to invest in oilfields.
REFINERY
South Korea's SK Energy, the country's top refiner, will idle a crude distillation unit (CDU) and a secondary unit for maintenance at its 840,000 barrels per day (bpd) Ulsan refinery in March, traders said.
MARKET NEWS
Royal Dutch Shell Plc negotiators met on Monday with the union representing workers at US refineries as a strike stretches into a third day after talks on a new national contract broke down.
Oil prices may stay depressed until summer due to weak seasonal demand even as Saudi Arabia's strategy of curbing the output growth of rival producers might have started achieving tangible results, OPEC delegates told Reuters.
Iran is sweetening the terms it offers on oil development contracts to draw the interest of foreign investors deterred by sanctions and low crude prices, as its pragmatic president seeks to deliver on his promise of economic recovery.
Production at an oilfield near the northern Iraq city of Kirkuk remained suspended on Monday after incurring severe damage during a weekend attack by Islamic State insurgents, Iraq's oil minister said.
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