April 26, 2021 [Zawya] – Middle East crude benchmarks Oman and Dubai were mixed on Thursday

SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks Oman and Dubai were mixed on Thursday, with Dubai dropping to the lowest since end-February as the regional COVID-19 pandemic outbreak dampened demand outlook.

In the spot market, Taiwanese refiner CPC bought three cargoes of June-loading Upper Zakum crude at around $1.2 above Dubai quotes via its monthly tender, traders said.

Chinese independent refiner Fuhai bought one Russian ESPO crude cargo at around 80 cents above ICE Brent from Sinochem’s storage tank in South Korea for early June delivery, traders said.

The deals could not be independently verified by Reuters.

ASIA-PACIFIC CRUDE

Malaysia’s state oil firm Petronas has set the monthly price factors for May-loading crude.

REFINERY

Indonesia’s state oil company PT Pertamina said on Thursday it had started building a jetty and developing four tanks near its Kasim refinery in West Papua, in an effort to boost access to crude oil products in the country’s remote eastern region.

NEWS

OPEC+ is heading for a largely technical meeting next week where major changes to policy are unlikely, Russian Deputy Prime Minister and OPEC+ sources said.

Exxon Mobil Corp said on Wednesday it had begun to slowly ramp up oil production at its Guyana project to 100,000-110,000 barrels per day (bpd), after a gas compressor problem prompted it to slash output to 30,000 bpd last week.

U.S. crude oil stockpiles unexpectedly edged higher last week, while distillate inventories fell and gasoline stocks built modestly as refining rates held steady, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

Libya’s oil production fell to about 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in recent days and could drop further due to budgetary issues, the National Oil Corporation said on Thursday.

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