Middle East Crude-Benchmarks post weekly declines amid rising supply expectations

Middle East crude benchmark spot premiums of Oman and Murban rose on Friday, while that of Dubai edged down, but they all posted weekly declines.

Investors are waiting for OPEC+ to meet on Sunday to decide its production outlook.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that eight members of OPEC+ will consider raising production further at a meeting on Sunday.

Top Indian refiner Indian Oil Corp IOC skipped the purchase of U.S. oil in its latest tender and instead bought 2 million barrels of West African and a million barrels of Middle Eastern grade, trade sources said on Friday.

The state refiner also bought one million barrels each of Nigerian oil grades Agbami and Usan from French oil major TotalEnergy, and another million barrels of Abu Dhabi's Das crude from Shell, the people said.

Nigerian oil has been bought on free-on-board basis and Das has been purchased on a delivered basis for arrival at Indian ports in late October-early November.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

Cash Dubai's premium to swaps fell 2 cents to $3.04 a barrel.

Mercuria will deliver a November-loading Upper Zakum crude cargo to Vitol following the deals.

PRICES ($/BBL)

NEWS

U.S. President Donald Trump told European leaders on Thursday that Europe must stop buying Russian oil that he said is helping Moscow fund its war against Ukraine, a White House official said, striking a combative tone amid slow diplomatic progress to end the fighting.

U.S. oil refiners are expected to have about 431,000 barrels per day (bpd) of capacity offline in the week ending September 5, decreasing available refining capacity by 113,000 bpd, research company IIR Energy said on Friday.

Ukraine attacked Russia's Ryazan oil refinery, the commander of its drone forces said on messaging app Telegram on Friday, as well as an oil depot in the occupied Luhansk region.

West Africa-focused Tullow Oil TLW named oil and gas industry veteran Ian Perks as its new CEO on Friday, succeeding Richard Miller, who will return to his previous role as the group's chief financial officer.

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