Middle East Crude-Benchmarks extend gains on Shell's demand

11 Jun, 2019

The oil major bought all of the 35 August Dubai partials that traded on Platts window although no cargo was delivered.

The deals were done between $61.25 and $61.29 a barrel. Cash Dubai's premium to swaps was assessed at $2.15 a barrel, up 6 cents.

OSPs: Kuwait raised the official selling prices (OSPs) for two crude grades it sells to Asia in July, trade sources said on Tuesday.

The producer has set July Kuwait Export Crude (KEC) price at $1.65 a barrel above the average of Oman/Dubai quotes, up 50 cents from the previous month.

It also raised the July Kuwait Super Light Crude (KSLC) OSP to $3 a barrel above Oman/Dubai quotes, up 40 cents.

The price hike for KEC was in line with Saudi's Arab Medium crude in the same month.

Iraq has raised the July official selling price (OSP) for Basra Light crude to Asia by 50 cents to plus $2.10 a barrel against the average of Oman/Dubai quotes from the previous month, a source with knowledge of the matter said.

Basra Heavy to Asia in the same month was priced at minus $0.70 a barrel to Oman/Dubai quotes, up 70 cents from the previous month.

ASIA-PACIFIC CRUDE: Santos Ltd has issued a tender to sell 400,000 barrels of Van Gogh crude for loading on Aug. 7-11, trade sources said.

Santos has set a target price of $12.60 a barrel premium to dated Brent in the tender, they said.

The tender will close on June 12.

Santos sold a June-loading Van Gogh crude cargo at a premium of more than $9 a barrel.

Van Gogh is one of Australia's heavy sweet crudes that have been sold at record premiums over the past several months.

Traders snapped up the oil for blending with fuel oil in preparation for the new regulations for low-sulphur marine oil ahead of implementation of IMO 2020.

Copyright Reuters, 2019

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