Middle East crude benchmarks softened on Friday even though Qatari al-Shaheen crude has been sold at the highest premium in more than two years on robust demand for Dubai-linked grades in Asia. QP offered four al-Shaheen cargoes to load on July 18-19, July 24-25, July 29-30 and July 29-30 via a tender. Buyers have the option of adding a deodorised field condensate (DFC) cargo to load on July 16-17 or July 22-23. The tender will close on May 14 with bids valid until a day later.
Ahead of the tender, three al-Shaheen cargoes loading in July have been sold at premiums of $1.18 a barrel to Dubai quotes, traders said. Qatar Petroleum sold two cargoes while the remaining one was from P66, they said. The deals could not be verified. The premiums topped the levels seen in QP's tender for February-loading cargoes.
Two July-loading Dubai cargoes have traded at 40 cents a barrel above its OSP, traders said. Chinaoil sold a cargo to JXTG while P66 sold its cargo to GS Caltex, one of the traders said. Iraq has raised the June official selling price (OSP) for Basra Light crude to Asia by 90 cents to plus $0.15 a barrel against the average of Oman/Dubai quotes from the previous month, the Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) said.