Sour crude market participants in Asia shrugged aside news of the attack on two oil product tankers in the Middle East Friday morning, with crude values and market structure steady after spiking as high as 4% during trading hours on Thursday.
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Register NowAt 11:00 am Singapore time (0300 GMT) Friday, the August/September Dubai swap was at 48 cents/b, down from 50 cents/b at the 0830GMT Asian close on Thursday.
The September/October Dubai swap spread also came down from 37 cents/b at the close on Thursday to 35 cents/b Friday morning.
The Brent/Dubai EFS spread -- which rose 14 cents/b through Thursday to settle at $3.16/b at 0830 GMT -- was steady at that level early Friday.
Outright crude values saw the most impact from news of the attacks, with Brent futures leading the crude complex higher.
August ICE Brent futures stood at $61.78/b at 0300GMT on Friday, up from Thursday's settle of $61.31/b. The same contract was at $61.40/b at the 0830 GMT close of trading in Singapore on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the August Dubai swap rose 38 cents/b to $58.62/b Friday morning, from $58.24/b assessed at 0830 GMT Thursday.
Japanese government officials reassured the market that the country's oil supply was not impacted from the attack in the Gulf of Oman.
"We do not see that there will be any issues for Japan's stable energy supply following the latest incidents," Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko said at a press conference in Tokyo.
Meanwhile, interest in the Platts Market on Close assessment process for sour crudes remained high especially for full cargoes of Middle Eastern crude grades.
The MOC saw its fifth full Murban cargo change hands for the month during Asian trading hours Thursday, after Shell lifted South Korean GS Caltex's offer at a discount of 1 cent/b to the Murban OSP.
This is the most number of full Murban cargoes ever traded during Platts MOC assessment process in Asia.
Prior to Thursday's purchase, Shell picked up four other August-loading Murban clips, with similar laycan and pricing terms, at premiums of between 5 cents/b and 25 cents/b over the grade's OSP.
Platts assessed August cash Dubai at $60.30/b Thursday, and August cash Oman at $60.35/b.
--Eesha Muneeb, eesha.muneeb@spglobal.com
--Edited by Norazlina Juma'at, norazlina.jumaat@spglobal.com