Middle East crude benchmarks Oman and Dubai were mixed on Thursday

SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks Oman and Dubai were mixed on Thursday after rising for two sessions, as traders awaited the outcome of an OPEC+ producers meeting to discuss compliance with their agreed output cuts and demand trends later in the day.

An OPEC+ technical panel warned that a rise in coronavirus cases in some countries may curb oil demand despite signs of economic recovery and initial indications of a decline in oil stocks, according to an internal document seen by Reuters. Taiwan’s Formosa and India’s Nayara will cut their crude processing rates in October during maintenance.

Qatar Petroleum (QP) has sold via its monthly tender two cargoes of al-Shaheen crude, loading Nov. 1-2 and Nov. 27-28, at an average discount of 58 cents per barrel to Dubai quotes, similar to the tender trade level seen last month, trade sources said. QP also set the November al-Shaheen crude price for term buyers at a discount of 55 cents per barrel to Dubai quotes.

RUSSIAN CRUDE:
Russian oil producer Surgutneftegaz has sold three November-loading cargoes of ESPO Blend crude at spot premiums of 60-70 cents a barrel to Dubai quotes to ChemChina and Mercuria, trade sources said.

The premiums were slighter higher than the trade levels seen a day earlier.Surgut is closing its third ESPO tender later on Thursday to sell three more cargoes, loading Nov. 17-24, Nov. 21–28, and Nov. 24–30.

ASIA-PACIFIC CRUDE:
Santos on Thursday closed spot tenders selling one 550,000-barrel cargo of Australian Pyrenees crude, loading Nov. 17-21, and one 650,000-barrel cargo of East Timor’s Bayu Undan condensate, loading Nov. 19-23.

Vietnam’s PV Oil sold one 300,000-barrel cargo of Su Tu Den crude, loading Nov. 8-14, at a discount of around $1.5 a barrel to dated Brent to Thai refinery PTT, traders said.

PV also sold one 300,000-barrel cargo of Te Giac Trang crude, loading Nov. 12-16, at a smaller discount of 60-70 cents to dated Brent to domestic Binh Son refinery, they said.The two Vietnamese grades were traded at spot premiums in PV Oil tenders last month.

REFINERY
Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp plans to shut its residue desulphurizer (RDS) for maintenance in October and will reduce its crude processing rates to about 40%, the company spokesman said.

India’s Nayara Energy will cut crude processing by about 90% during a three-week maintenance shutdown of a 360,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) crude unit at its Vadinar refinery in western Gujarat state from early October, two sources said.

Storm-tossed U.S. offshore energy producers and exporters began clearing debris on Thursday from Hurricane Sally and booting up idle Gulf of Mexico operations after hunkering down for five days.

The United Arab Emirates has emerged as a major laggard in delivering oil output cuts in August, figures used by OPEC+ showed on Wednesday, as the group meets this week amid signs of a faltering demand recovery.

Exports and transit of Russian oil are expected to be broadly flat in the fourth quarter at 62.4 million tonnes, a loading schedule showed on Wednesday, in line with a global deal on output reduction.

India’s oil imports from Africa jumped to their highest in 10 months in August as refiners switched out more expensive crude from the Middle East, shipping data provided by trade sources showed.