Middle East Crude-Benchmarks slip; March cargoes sold

Middle East Crude-Benchmarks slip; March cargoes sold

SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks Oman, Dubai and Murban slipped on Thursday while Brent's premium to Dubai also eased as the recent price rally took a breather.

Several March-loading cargoes have been sold this week to Indian and Chinese buyers, even though the trading cycle had ended last month.

Total sold about 1 million barrels of Upper Zakum and 2 million barrels of Murban crude for March loading to an Indian and Chinese buyer, respectively, traders said.

Total had accumulated these cargoes from the previous month when the French major went on a buying spree on the Platts window, one of them said.

Separately, Rongsheng Petrochemical sold 2 million barrels of Upper Zakum crude loading in March to Unipec, traders said.

The cargo was sold at a premium of $2.50-$2.90 a barrel to Dubai quotes, one of them said, although this could not be confirmed.

Rongsheng had to sell its crude because it is dealing with a backlog of shipments at its discharge port, traders said.

OSPs

Qatar is set to raise in March the price differential of its crude grades relative to the average price of the Dubai and Oman benchmarks, state producer Qatar Energy said on Wednesday.

Qatar Marine will be sold in March at a premium