SINGAPORE: The Middle East crude benchmarks rose to their strongest this month on Friday on news that oilfield maintenance in Qatar will hit exports of al-Shaheen.
Al-Shaheen exports are expected to fall to 10 cargoes in January from the usual 16-18 cargoes, traders said.
Tasweeq only offered two cargoes in its tender. (see below)
Physical trade kicked off on Friday after an oil major sold 500,000 barrels of Qatar Land to a southeast Asian end user at 25 cents a barrel above its official selling price, they said, steady levels from the previous month.
The sale of light crude at the start of the trading cycle indicates robust demand from Asian refiners, one of the traders said.
Separately, Shandong Dongming Petrochemical bought its first Qatari al-Shaheen crude as the Chinese refiner diversifies its crude slate, traders said.
The independent refiner took delivery of 1 million barrels of the grade onboard suezmax Nordic Pollux in early November at Lanshan port in Shandong, Reuters trade flow data showed.
Iran set its official selling price (OSP) for December-loading Iran Light crude to Asia at 65 cents a barrel premium to Oman/Dubai quotes, up 90 cents from the month before, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Friday.
The price hikes for Iranian grades were in line with those of Saudi Arabia.
Iraq has raised the December official selling price (OSP) for Basra Light crude to Asia by $1.00 to minus $0.45 a barrel against the average of Oman/Dubai quotes from the previous month, the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) said on Friday.
The price hike put Basra Light at just 5 cents a barrel below Saudi's Arab Medium crude, the narrowest price gap since October 2012, trade data showed.
"Basra Light is becoming more expensive," said a trader, adding that this could push up demand for rival Saudi Arab Medium crude in Asia.
Spot Iraqi Basra crude has traded at premiums against the OSPs for most part of this year as competitive OSPs, compensations for quality changes and demurrage spurred robust demand in Asia, the Mediterranean and the United States.
December Basra Heavy to Asia was priced at minus $5.45 a barrel to Oman/Dubai quotes, SOMO said in an e-mailed statement.
REFINERY
Pertamina will shut its Balikpapan refinery for maintenance in March, as well as the single-point mooring (SPM) system for receiving or shipping oil at its Cilacap plant, said sources with knowledge of the matter.
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