Crude MOC: Crude complex steady, spot trading picks up steam

The sour crude complex was steady at the Asia close Oct. 15, while fresh spot activity demonstrated healthy demand for sour crude grades.

S&P Global Platts assessed December cash Dubai versus same-month Dubai futures at a premium of $2.245/b at the close, down 9.5 cents/b from the previous day.

December cash Oman was assessed at a premium of $2.34/b, down 2 cents/b.

In tender activity, a Qatar Petroleum for the Sale of Petroleum Products tender offering three 500,000-barrel cargoes of December-loading Al-Shaheen crude was awarded to Chinese buyers at premiums of around $2.20/b-$2.50/b to Platts front-month Dubai assessments, FOB, according to market sources.

The outcome of QPSPP's monthly tender is widely watched by the market as an indicator of medium, sour grades.

"I think [China] has stronger demand than we thought," said a crude oil trader based in Southeast Asia.

Chinese demand continued to be in focus after the release of crude import quotas for independent refineries.

Any incremental demand could support cash differentials of December-loading cargoes of Russia's ESPO, which is a favored grade by Chinese independent refineries and could reach China by December due to the short-haul, before the expiry of the freshly issued import quotas.

Market participants will be closely watching the results of Surgutneftegaz's tender offering two 100,000 mt cargoes of December-loading ESPO crude, closing Oct. 15 with same-day validity.

A total of 17 Dubai partials were traded in the Platts Market on Close assessment process.

The partials were traded with Unipec, PetroChina, Shell, Phillips 66 and Mitsui on the sell side and TotalEnergies, Hengli, Trafigura and BP on the buy side.

They brought the total count of Dubai and Oman partials traded in October to 106.