Middle East crude benchmarks edged up on Friday as concerns of supply disruption in Venezuela and Iran supported medium and heavy grades. Next week, Iraq, Iran and Kuwait are expected to release their respective official selling prices (OSPs) for July which will provide a clearer price direction for August-loading spot trades.
As further details emerge from KOGAS' Basra Light term tender, SK Energy may have bought 4 million barrels of the crude to load in second-half of 2018 at 70-75 cents a barrel above its OSP, traders said.
Cash Dubai's premium to swaps rose 6 cents to $1.26 a barrel after BP bought most of the 12 August partials that traded from Unipec. Venezuela has begun testing seaborne oil transfers to ease a severe backlog of crude deliveries from its main terminals, according to sources and data, as chronic delays and production declines could temporarily halt state-run PDVSA's supply contracts if they are not cleared soon.
The tanker Sonangol Kalandula, bound for a Thailand company's refinery in Kemaman, Malaysia, was loaded this week with Venezuelan heavy crude using a ship-to-ship (STS) transfer, the first test of how PDVSA expects to ease congestion at its ports.
The vessel, which has not yet set sail, had been waiting since February to load, according to Thomson Reuters vessel tracking data. The cargo's owner, Tipco Asphalt, did not reply to a request for comment.