Middle East crude: Dubai, Oman stay in wide discounts

[SINGAPORE] The Middle East crude benchmarks Dubai and DME Oman remained mired in deep discounts of about US$2 a barrel to Dubai swaps on Thursday.

Das stayed in discount as BP repeated its offer for 300,000 barrels of Das crude for November loading at 20 cents a barrel below its official selling price (OSP) on RIM. The oil major first offered the crude on Tuesday.

Tasweeq will sell four al-Shaheen crude cargoes for November loading in a tender to close on Monday, a trader said, which will kick off trade this month.

Singapore markets are closed on Friday.

US Energy Information Administration said in a note that Saudi Arabia has increased production and maintained its market share in this year.

"In the first half of 2015, Saudi Arabia exported on average 4.4 million barrels per day of crude oil to seven major trading partners in Asia, making up more than half of Saudi Arabia's total crude oil exports over that period," the agency said.

"However, long-term trends within Saudi Arabia's energy sector may reduce its global crude oil market share."

OSPs Iran has reduced the quarterly price for its flagship crude to the lowest in three years in a bid to lure Asian buyers to lock in more term supplies next year.

The price reduction is just one of the steps taken by the OPEC producer to ramp up output and regain market share lost since US and European sanctions aimed at its nuclear programme cut its crude oil exports by more than half.

Iran set its official selling price (OSP) for Iranian Light crude for October at a 25 cents a barrel premium to Oman/Dubai, down 35 cents from the month before, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.

This puts Iranian Light OSP at a 15-cent premium to Saudi's Arab Light in the fourth quarter, the lowest quarterly price since the last three months of 2012, according to Reuters data.

Iraq has dropped the October official selling price (OSP) for Basra Light crude to Asia by US$0.50 to minus US$1.95 a barrel against the average of Oman/Dubai quotes from the previous month, the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) said.

Basra Heavy to Asia in the same month was priced at minus $6.65 a barrel to Oman/Dubai quotes, SOMO said in an e-mailed statement.

DME OMAN DME Oman for November settled at $45.61, down $1.99, at 0830 GMT. This puts DME Oman at $1.84 a barrel below Dubai swaps, down from a discount of $1.80 in the previous session.

REUTERS