Murban falls; ADNOC sets widest discount on light-medium grades

Middle East crude benchmarks were mixed on Thursday with Oman and Dubai edging higher, although Murban slumped to its lowest level in eight months.

The spot premium for Murban was pegged at $4.24 a barrel against the Dubai swap, a level last seen in mid-April.

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) on Thursday lowered the January official selling price (OSP) of its benchmark Murban crude at $90.90 a barrel from $93.53 a barrel in December.

ADNOC also set its January medium sour grade Upper Zakum at a discount of $5.20 a barrel against the light sour Murban, marking the widest discount between its medium and light grades.

"The ADNOC might want to keep its oil competitive given more Russian crude - especially Urals that has a similar quality as Upper Zakum - is expected to come to Asia," said a Singapore-based trader.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

Cash Dubai's premium to swaps gained 14 cents to $1.19 a barrel.

PRICES ($/BBL)

ASIAN REFINERIES

China's Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical has shut its No. 1 naphtha cracker at its Nanjing site following a fire incident on Wednesday, according to the company's official Weibo account.

The fire occured at 1:08 p.m. local time (0508 GMT) and has been extinguished, even though rescue work is still ongoing at the unit, the post added.

NEWS

The number of oil tankers in the Black Sea waiting to cross Istanbul's Bosphorus strait on the way to the Mediterranean rose by five to 16 on Thursday, a shipping agency said, amid talks between Western and Turkish officials on steps to resolve the tanker queues there.

Russia is still working on how to respond to a price cap imposed by Western powers on sales of Russian oil, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

U.S. crude stocks fell in the latest week while gasoline and distillate inventories posted big builds, as oil refiners' utilization climbed to the highest since 2019, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

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