Asian refiners receive full Saudi crude term allocations for November

Singapore — Asian refiners have received full crude term allocations for November-loading cargoes from Saudi Aramco, the biggest producer in the Middle East, market participants said.

November allocations for key buyers in Asia were met and traders said they were not aware of any cuts.

"We received full allocation volume [from Saudi Aramco], we got what we asked for," a trader with a North Asian refiner said.

This is the third consecutive month that Aramco has committed to fulfilling Asian term volumes.

Asian refiners form a major demand center for Saudi Arabia's crude exports, with about 73% of its total crude exports in 2019 flowing to Asia, according to OPEC's 2020 Annual Statistical Bulletin.

Just last week, market participants have indicated that changes made to the November official selling prices of Asia-bound Saudi crude were within their expectations.

Aramco had set the November OSP differentials for Asia-bound Arab Extra Light crude and Arab Light crude at discounts of 60 cents/b and 40 cents/b against Oman/Dubai, up 20 cents/b and 10 cents/b, respectively, month on month.

The November OSP differentials for Asia-bound Arab Medium and Heavy were left unchanged from October at minus 30 cents/b against Oman/Dubai for both.

Saudi Arabia, OPEC's largest producer by far, pumped 8.99 million b/d in September, in line with its quota, with both exports and inventories rising slightly, according to a survey by S&P Global Platts on Oct. 9.

The OPEC+ coalition in August rolled back its historic 9.7 million b/d production cut accord to 7.7 million b/d and is scheduled to relax it further to 5.8 million b/d at the start of 2021.

However, recent reports indicated that Saudi Arabia is considering cancelling plans to boost OPEC+ production quotas after December amid demand risks due to rising coronavirus cases worldwide.

The nine-country Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, which is tasked with monitoring market conditions and recommending any changes to the OPEC+ deal, is due to meet online on Oct. 19.