SINGAPORE: Iraq's Basra Light received a boost in the Middle East crude market on Monday after an Indian refinery bought the grade partly to replace Iranian oil.
India's Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd bought 1 million barrels of Basra Light from Europe's Total at a discount of $1.50 a barrel to Dubai prices on a delivered basis for March 1-10 lifting, a person with knowledge of the trade said.
The price is equivalent to more than $1 a barrel premium on a free-on-board basis, much higher than the 50-60 cents a barrel fetched in earlier trades, traders said.
Elsewhere, trade remained thin as market players awaited new monthly official selling prices (OSPs) to gauge the sentiment for the front-month April trading.
Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia is expected to cut prices for most of the crude it sells to Asia in March in line with a weak Dubai market, trade sources said.
PRICES
DME Oman for April settled at $49.63, up $2.42, at 0830 GMT. This puts DME Oman at $1.45 a barrel below Dubai swaps.
The spread between Platts Dubai and Oman narrowed to about 60 cents from as wide as $3 last week, following deals on the window. Gunvor sold an April Oman partial to Shell at $49.70 a barrel while Shell bought a Dubai partial from Unipec at $49.10.
Dubai crude, as quoted by price-reporting agency Platts, averaged $45.57 a barrel for January, down $14.67 from the previous month, traders said. The January price is the lowest since February 2009, according to Reuters data.
MARKET NEWS
OPEC's oil supply has risen in January due to more Angolan exports and steady to higher output in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf producers, a Reuters survey showed, a sign key members are standing firm in refusing to prop up prices.
Oil production in Russia edged down in January to 10.66 million barrels per day (bpd) from 10.67 million bpd in December, data from the Energy Ministry showed on Monday.
State oil giant Saudi Aramco has put on hold its deepwater oil and gas exploration and drilling activities in the Red Sea because of high costs as it economises in an environment of low crude prices, industry sources said.
Union workers took to picket lines on Sunday after strikes were called at nine US refineries and chemical plants in a bid to pressure oil companies to agree to a new national contract covering workers at 63 plants.
Iraqi Kurdish forces on Sunday found and freed workers who had gone missing a day earlier when Islamic State insurgents seized a small crude oil station near the northern city of Kirkuk, the provincial governor and a provincial councilman said.
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