Middle East crude benchmarks Oman, Dubai and Murban tumbled on Thursday, slipping to multi-week lows as strong supplies weighed.

Mercuria delivered another two Upper Zakum crude cargoes to Gunvor and NPI following Dubai partials trade on Platts window, bringing its total tally this month to 35 cargoes, traders said.

A total of 37 Upper Zakum cargoes, or 18.5 million barrels, have been delivered this month, including one cargo each from Trafigura and Sinochem.

In the spot market, PTT has bought two 500,000-barrel cargoes each of Murban and Das crude loading in November for the IRPC refinery, traders said. Mercuria and Shell sold the Murban cargoes while PetroChina and Chevron sold Das, they added.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

Cash Dubai’s premium to swaps fell 32 cents to $2.32 a barrel.

NEWS

Indian oil refiners are increasing gasoline and diesel exports to their highest levels in several years, driven by expanded crude processing capacity and increased domestic ethanol blending that has freed up fuel supplies for overseas markets, traders and analysts said.

Eight oil companies operating in Iraqi Kurdistan, representing over 90% of production, reached agreements in principle with Iraq’s federal and Kurdish regional government (KRG) to resume oil exports, an industry umbrella group said on Wednesday.

Oil and gas activity in the key producing states of Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico declined slightly in the third quarter, as executives there expressed an increasingly negative outlook for the industry, according to a survey released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas on Wednesday.

Fresh tests on the Adriatic pipeline by Hungarian oil group MOL MOL and Croatian operator Janaf (JANF.ZA) have not yet verified that the pipeline can supply Hungary and Slovakia with enough oil, MOL said on Wednesday.

New Zealand’s government said it had opened applications for new oil and gas exploration permits on Thursday, after reversing a 2018 ban on new exploration for fossil fuels.
Source: Reuters