SINGAPORE: Cash Dubai in the Middle East crude market softened on Friday, even as Shell continued to its buying spree of December Dubai partials.
The oil major bought all 11 December partials at $48.90 a barrel on the window, traders said, thereby setting Dubai's differential to swap at 1 cent, down 13 cents from the previous session. The partials traded on Friday mean that Phillips 66 will deliver a cargo of Upper Zakum to Shell.
Chevron also sold Shell a December-loading Upper Zakum cargo to Shell at a 10 cent a barrel premium to Dubai quotes on the trading window, traders added.
Taiwan's state-refiner awarded its sour crude import tender, likely taking 2 million barrels of Middle East grades that include Upper Zakum crude, although this could not be directly confirmed.
CURRENT PREV SESSION DME OMAN
Japan's top refiner, JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp, said it shut the 522,000 tonnes-per-year No.2 paraxylene unit at its Kashima plant in eastern Japan on Thursday after a fire.
*MARKET NEWS
South Korea's GS Caltex Corp has bought a cargo of Forties crude oil from Europe's North Sea, a spokesman said on Friday, indicating that the arbitrage window for crude from the United Kingdom to Asia has opened.
Russia will produce 548 million tonnes (11 million barrels per day) of oil next year, a post-Soviet record. However Moscow still wants global producers to curb production amid weak prices, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday.
Freight rates for very large crude carriers (VLCCs) could dip but are likely to remain firm next week on buoyant cargo volumes, ship brokers said on Friday.
China exported record volumes of diesel and gasoline in September, data showed on Friday, as oil majors in the world's top energy market sell excess product abroad amid slackening local demand and surging output.
Two years after Iran pledged to open up its oil industry in anticipation of lifting of sanctions, foreign companies say they still have little information about Iranian oil fields and contract terms, hindering investment decisions.
Western insurers are slowly reaching deals with Iran as they seek to re-enter a multi-billion dollar market although the pace of business is hampered by banking restrictions 10 months after sanctions were lifted.
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