Middle Eastern benchmarks Oman, Dubai and Murban continued to fall on Wednesday amidst subdued spot trades, while the market waited for major oil producers to reach agreement on their output plan.
Spot premium for Oman, a medium sour crude, flipped to a discount of 78 cents a barrel against the Dubai quotes, down from a premium of $1.05 in the prior day.
Oman crude prices are typically volatile toward the end of the month due to low liquidity, as traders look to cover their outstanding position before the DME futures contract expires on the last trading day of the month.
OPEC+ talks on 2024 oil policy are difficult, making a rollover of the previous agreement a possibility rather than deeper production cuts, four OPEC+ sources said on Tuesday.
The group is due to meet online on Thursday to discuss output policy in 2024.
Meanwhile, concerns over near-term supply tightness mounted as a severe storm in the Black Sea region has disrupted up to 2 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil exports from Kazakhstan and Russia, according to state’s officials and port agent data.
Daily oil output at Kazakhstan’s giant Kashagan field dropped 38% to 33,000 metric tons on Tuesday due to a storm in the Black Sea which has disrupted the shipments of Kazakh crude, Kazakhstan’s energy ministry said on Wednesday.
ASIAN REFINERIES
China’s newest mega refiner, Yulong Petrochemical, has received 300,000 metric tons of crude oil import quotas for 2023, according to two domestic energy consultancies, which will enable the refinery to secure feedstocks for its trial run.
(Reporting by Muyu Xu; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)