SINGAPORE: Middle East crude benchmarks edged higher on Monday, boosted by OPEC production cuts and US sanctions on Iranian and Venezuelan crude.
BRENT-DUBAI EFS
Middle East oil benchmarks Dubai and DME Oman have nudged above prices for Brent crude, an unusual move as US sanctions on Venezuela and Iran along with output cuts by OPEC tighten supply of medium-to-heavy sour oil, traders and analysts said.
Dubai spot prices and DME Oman crude futures for April have held above ICE Brent at Asia's market close since the start of February, data from the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Dubai Mercantile Exchange and Refinitiv Eikon showed.
"The forceful implementation of US sanctions on Venezuelan crude exports, the greater-than-expected recent Saudi crude output cut ... and the uncertainty over US sanction exemptions on Iranian crude have all served to strengthen sour crudes relative to sweet benchmarks such as Brent," said Tilak Doshi, a Singapore-based analyst at consultancy Muse, Stancil & Co.
US CRUDE
Strong demand from the United States for heavy oil to replace Venezuelan supplies has boosted prices for US Mars crude and Latin American grades, restricting supplies of those cargoes to Asia, traders said.
Offers of Mars crude for April delivery to North Asia have risen more than $1 a barrel, while spot premiums for Latin American grades such as Castilla from Colombia, have climbed by $2 a barrel, traders said.
Castilla was sold out even before its loading programme was released, said one of the traders.
IRAN
Iran has set the official selling price (OSP) of its Iranian Light grade for its Asian buyers at 40 cents above the Oman/Dubai average for March, unchanged from the previous month, an industry source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Monday.
It raised prices for heavier grades in Asia and also hiked prices for all crude types it sells to the Mediterranean in March, the source said.
RUSSIA
ONGC has offered 700,000 barrels of Sokol crude for loading over April 17 to 23 in a tender that closes on Feb. 14, a tender document showed.
ONGC had closed a tender late last week for Sokol crude cargo also loading in April, but it was not immediately clear if that tender had been awarded.
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