Middle East Crude

Saudi Aramco notified its term buyers in Asia that it supplied November allocations in line with nominations. Saudi supplies term avails in line with requests for a sixth straight month. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC, or OPEC plus, eased joint production cuts, reinforcing sales competition among producers. Saudi Aramco was believed to have accepted requests by some term buyers for incremental supplies, or more volumes on top of contracts for November-loading. Saudi Aramco apparently hoped to sell as much volumes as possible amid high crude oil prices. In addition, Saudi Aramco was believed to have trimmed November-loading OSPs in an attempt to expand sales volumes

African/European/Russian/American Crude

Spot differentials for December-loading Sokol rose to premiums of $5.35-5.45 to Dubai quotes. Gasoil margins in Asia strengthened, lifting the market for Sokol. India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) sold one cargo for Dec 16-22 loading in its second Sokol sell tender as December-loading closed on Thursday. The buyer was said to be an end-user in South Korea seen as GS Caltex. The price was heard at a premium of around $5.40 to Dubai quotes. ONGC earlier sold one cargo in the first December Sokol sell tender to European Mercuria for an end-user in South Korea seen as Hyundai Oilbank.

Asia Pacific Crude

A loading program of December-loading Malaysian Kimanis was released. A total of eight Kimanis cargoes (600,000bbl each) would be supplied for December-loading, doubled from four cargoes for November-loading, which had been affected by supply disruptions. Kimanis supplies recovered to almost normal levels. But of the eight cargoes, the first three cargoes were originally scheduled to be November-loading, but were deferred to December-loading. US Conoco Phillips would handle two cargoes for Dec 1-5 and 26-30 loading, Malaysia's state-run Petronas was allocated for three cargoes for Dec 5-9, 21-25 and Dec 30 to Jan 3 loading. In addition, one cargo each was allocated to PTTEP in Thailand (Dec 10-14 loading), Brunei Energy Service & Trading (Dec 12-16 loading) and Royal Dutch Shell (Dec 17-21 loading).