Middle East Crude-Benchmarks rise; CPC buys U.S. crude

Middle East Crude-Benchmarks rise; CPC buys U.S. crude

SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks Oman and Dubai rose on Monday as traders awaited the release of fresh monthly official selling prices.Dubai, as quoted by price-reporting agency S&P Global Platts, rose for a third straight month in January to an average of $54.772 a barrel, the highest since February last year.  CRUDE Jan 2021 Dec 2020 CHANGE Platts Dubai $54.772 $49.815 $4.957 Platts Oman $54.786 $49.965 $4.821 Platts Oman/Dubai $54.779 $49.890 $4.889 average Platts Dubai/DME Oman $54.781 $49.907 $4.874 averageADNOC has notified buyers that their March term supplies for Upper Zakum crude will be reduced by 15%, two trade sources said. Term supplies for other grades will be reduced by 10%, one of the sources said.Taiwan's CPC via its monthly tender bought 2 million barrels of U.S. WTI Midland crude at a premium of below $2 to dated Brent on a delivery basis, traders said.Indonesia's Pertamina is seeking condensate for April via a tender to be closed on Tuesday.NEWSThe chief executives of ExxonMobil Corp and Chevron Corp held preliminary talks in early 2020 to explore combining the two largest U.S. oil producers in what would have been the biggest merger of all time, according to people familiar with the matter. Russian