Middle East Crude-Benchmarks mixed; Unipec to deliver Oman to Total

Middle East Crude-Benchmarks mixed; Unipec to deliver Oman to Total

SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks Oman and Dubai were mixed on Thursday amid thin trade. Unipec will deliver a February-loading Oman crude cargo to Total following the Platts window deals. CHINA CUTS CRUDE IMPORT QUOTA China has issued its first batch of 2022 crude oil import quotas at 109.03 million tonnes, 11% below 2021's first allotment, according to industry sources and a document reviewed by Reuters, with large private firms winning out over smaller processors. Among the 42 companies granted quotas, the country's top three private refiners — Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp (ZPC), Hengli Petrochemical and Shenghong Petrochemical — together won 41.95 million tonnes. That was about 38% of the total and nearly 50% more than a year earlier. ZPC, China's single largest refiner with total crude processing capacity of 800,000 barrels per day, was awarded 20 million tonnes, followed by Hengli with 14 million tonnes and Shenghong at 7.95 million tonnes, according to the document from the Ministry of Commerce. Smaller plants, most of which are based in eastern refining hub of Shandong province, received a total of 51.4 million tonnes of quotas, about 26% less than a year ago, the documents showed. Separately, China has issued its first refined