Middle East

　Saudi Arabia's state-owned Saudi Aramco informed its term buyers in Asia on Thursday that it kept the March loading OSPs for all of crude grades unchanged from the previous month. Saudi Aramco set the March-loading Arab Light (AL) at a premium of $1.00 to Dubai/Oman average. Backwardation in inter-month spreads for the benchmark Dubai papers narrowed slightly while the spot market for March-loading Oman softened marginally. But oil producers continued to keep supply curbs as Saudi Arabia would keep voluntarily supply cuts of 1.0 mil barrels per day (b/d) in February and March. "Saudi Arabia may have kept the OSPs steady amid views that demand/supply would tighten," said a trader in Singapore. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia raised the OSPs for Europe sharply by $1.3-1.40 from the previous month.

Africa/Europe/Russia/America

　Spot differentials for April-loading East Siberian ESPO Blend softened. Paramount Energy sold a total of three cargoes in its sell tender closed on Feb 19 and the cargoes were awarded at premiums of $1.70-1.80 to Dubai quotes, the buyers were said to be China National Chemical Co (ChemChina) and China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC). Following the tender, Russian producer Gazprom sold one cargo to China International United Petroleum & Chemicals Co (UNIPEC) at premiums of $1.50-1.60 to Dubai quotes as reported. In the trade of April-loading ESPO, some traders were believed to still have cargoes in hand, but buying interest from China was seen tepid as surging flat prices undermined margins for oil products in China.

Asia Pacific

　Spot differentials for April-loading Malaysian Labuan dropped. Demand was limited, so that Labuan values softened. "While demand for competing African grades is weak, demand for regional grades like Malaysian is not strong," a Singapore trader pointed out. Europe's Trafigura apparently sold a Labuan cargo in the market on Thursday. The buyer was an end-user in Thailand and the price was at premium of high-$1s to $2.00 to DTD Brent. Meanwhile ahead of the deal, Malaysia's state-run Petronas sold Labuan for end April-loading at a premium of above $2.00 to DTD Brent. It was later unveiled that the buyer was Europe's Vitol.