SINGAPORE: The Middle East crude market held steady on Friday as traders awaited more official selling prices (OSP) from Gulf countries to gauge sentiment for the November trading.
Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar raised their OSPs for their light and medium grades, because of wider middle distillate cracks. Saudi cut its OSP for its Arab Heavy grade as the fuel oil cracks weakened.
The OSPs for Kuwait, Iran and Iraq are due over the weekend or early next week. By then, refineries will also have calculated their requirements for the month, allowing spot trading for the month to kick off, traders said.
Still, with Chinese refineries set to increase their crude processing in September after two months of cuts, and winter in the northern hemisphere, demand is expected to be firm.
OSPS:
- Qatar has raised its August retroactive official selling price (OSP) for Qatar Marine crude to $109.15 a barrel, up $9.40 from July. That puts the Qatar Marine OSP at a $0.56 per barrel premium to the Dubai quotes from $0.60 premium in July.
The Gulf Arab state also set the August Qatar Land crude OSP at $110.40, up $9.85 from July, taking its premium up to $1.81 a barrel above Dubai quotes from a $1.40 premium for July.
MARKET NEWS
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- A low pressure area located about 60 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River still has a 30 percent chance of becoming a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours, the US National Hurricane Center said Friday.
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