Middle East crude futures complex rangebound amid March spot trading

Singapore — Benchmark Dubai crude futures held within a well-trodden range Thursday morning in Asia as regional crude traders busied themselves with March trading activity for Middle East sour crude cargoes heading to the region.

At 11 am in Singapore (0300 GMT), the March Brent/Dubai EFS was pegged at $1.99/b, unchanged from its end-of-day 0830GMT assessment at the Asian close on Wednesday.

Market participants were occupied with incoming spot market tenders, buying inquiries and cargo offers, market sources said Thursday morning.

Traders were mostly waiting to hear results from Qatar Petroleum's tender that is expected to have been awarded late Wednesday. Results were not heard as of Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, ongoing tenders had also set the agenda for the rest of the week. Thailand's PTT issued its spot tender seeking Middle East sour crudes for March loading or March/April delivery to its refinery in Rayong.

Iraq's SOMO also issued a second tender selling two million barrels of February-loading Basrah Light crude on an Asia OSP basis, market sources said.

Other spot market tenders are also expected to emerge before the week is up, traders said.

Intermonth spreads for Dubai crude slipped Thursday morning, but were largely rangebound.

The February/March inter-month spread for Dubai crude futures was pegged at 82 cents/b at 11 am in Singapore (0300 GMT), compared with an assessed 86 cents/b at 4:30 pm Singapore time on Wednesday.

The March/April spread was pegged at 81 cents/b Thursday morning, down from 86 cents/b assessed at the close of trading Wednesday.