Middle East Crude-Benchmarks mixed; EFS widens to 17-month high

Middle East Crude-Benchmarks mixed; EFS widens to 17-month high

SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks Oman and Dubai were little changed on Tuesday, while spot premiums for June-loading Russian ESPO Blend crude slightly softened.Gazprom Neft awarded an ESPO Blend crude cargo, loading June 1-14, at around $2.1 a barrel above Dubai quotes via a spot tender, traders said. Brent's premium to Dubai swaps, a spread for oil traders to gauge the relative price strength of sweet and sour crude, widened by 33 cents to $3.38 a barrel, the biggest since Nov. 19, 2019, Refinitiv Eikon data showed. DUB-EFS-1MChinese refiner Hongrun bought Johan Sverdrup crude at around 70-90 cents a barrel above ICE Brent for July delivery, traders said.Taiwan's CPC closed a tender seeking June-loading sour crude, with bids valid till Thursday.REFINERYTaiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp plans to ramp up operating rates at its refinery in May to 74% once it restarts a gasoline-making unit after maintenance and as refining margins have improved, the company's spokesman said. PTT Global Chemical PCL said on Tuesday it had resumed normal operations at its petrochemical units following an outage last week. NEWSSaudi Arabia's crude oil exports fell to their lowest in eight months in February, the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI) said on Monday, as the world's biggest