Qatar Petroleum cuts indicative crude price differentials for Feb: source

Singapore — Qatar Petroleum cut the indicative price of February-loading cargoes of its Qatar Land and Qatar Marine crude grades for term lifters, a market source told S&P Global Platts Friday.

The company slashed the indicative price for February Qatar Land by 75 cents/b month on month to $3.80/b and Qatar Marine by 20 cents/b month on month to $2.85/b over the average of Platts Oman/Dubai assessments.

This is the third month Qatar Petroleum has issued forward-looking indicative prices for the two grades, in preparation for its move to setting forward-looking official selling prices.

The company announced late December that it will switch to prospective pricing for its crude sales from February 2020 "to improve the overall competitiveness of Qatar Marine and Qatar Land, and allow existing and new customers to better align and compare the Qatari crude grades with other crude grades."

The move will bring it in line with the majority of the Middle Eastern producers, such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq, who set their OSPs on a prospective basis.

QP currently issues OSPs for Qatar Land and Qatar Marine crude on a retroactive basis, with prices issued after the cargoes have loaded for a particular month.

-- Ada Taib, ada.taib@spglobal.com

-- Edited by Kshitiz Goliya, newsdesk@spglobal.com