Crude MOC: Cash Dubai slips, Saudi Aramco issues full term allocation

Benchmark cash Dubai crude's premium to Dubai futures fell in Asia Aug. 11, while the issuance of term allocations by Saudi Aramco provided clarity on fundamentals for trading October-loading cargoes.

S&P Global Platts assessed October cash Dubai at a premium of $2.17/b to the same-month Dubai futures at the 4.30 pm Singapore close, down 13 cents/b from the previous day.

October cash Oman was assessed unchanged at a premium of $2.31/b to same-month Dubai futures.

Saudi Aramco issued full allocations to term buyers, in line with market expectation as OPEC+ has agreed to raise production levels by 400,000 b/d from August until December, enabling sellers to fulfill term nominations, traders said.

However, high official selling prices set by the producer have led to some end-users opting to reduce nomination volumes, diverting their demand to the spot market instead, they said.

"Heard many buyers nominated less quantity and Aramco accepted them. [Saudi OSPs are] too expensive," said a crude oil trader based in North Asia.

Echoing a similar view, another crude oil trader said: "Saudi OSP [is] too expensive compared to spot [market]."

In the Platts Market on Close assessment process, Shell bought from Hengli 500,000 barrels of Abu Dhabi's Upper Zakum crude for loading in Oct. 1-28 at a premium of $2.30/b to Platts front-month cash Dubai.

The Platts Market on Close assessment process saw 25 October Dubai partial of 25,000 barrels traded.

The Dubai partials were traded with Equinor, ExxonMobil, Glencore, Koch, PetroChina and Reliance on the sell side and Gunvor, Shell and Total on the buy side.

No convergence has been declared in August so far. A convergence occurs when 20 partials are traded between two counterparties, resulting in a full, 500,000 barrel physical cargo being declared from the seller to the buyer.