MIDEAST: Japanese refiner Fuji Oil bought a cargo of February-loading Murban crude on Monday at a discount of 25 cents-30 cents a barrel to the grade's official selling price via a tender, traders said.

The discount was narrower than the 45 cents a barrel done in the previous month's tender.

Separately, Unipec has sold a February-loading Qatar Land cargo to Shell at 35 cents a barrel below its OSP.

Iraq's SOMO sold 2 million barrels of Basra Light for Dec. 24 loading to a major, probably Shell, at about $1 a barrel above its OSP. SOMO has re-issued a tender to sell 1 million barrels of Basra Heavy crude for Dec. 20 loading.

RUSSIA: Spot premiums for February-loading Russian Sokol crude have dropped to a three-month low after refining margins in Asia hit their lowest in more than four years, traders said.

ONGC sold a second Sokol cargo loading in February to Trafigura at $4.10-$4.20 a barrel to Dubai quotes, the sources said.

The 700,000-barrel cargo will load on Feb. 22-28, they said.

Japan's SODECO has also sold a February-loading cargo to a South Korean end-user at a similar premium, the sources said.

Exxon Mobil did not award a tender on Monday to sell at least one of three cargoes to load on Feb. 2-6, Feb. 7-11 and Feb. 17-21 as bids were too low, they said.

Russia's Surgutneftegaz will close a tender later on Monday to sell 200,000 tonnes of ESPO Blend crude for loading from Kozmino port on Jan. 31-Feb. 5 and Feb. 4-9, traders said.

Sakhalin Energy also has a tender to sell Sakhalin Blend crude which will close on Dec. 19.

ASIA-PACIFIC: ConocoPhillips will close on Tuesday a tender to sell a Kimanis cargo loading on Feb. 19-23. It also has a tender to sell a Bayu Undan condensate cargo loading on Feb. 6-12 that will close on Wednesday.

Indonesia's TPPI did not award a condensate tender last week and it remained to be seen if it will buy any cargo for February delivery.