Middle East

　Saudi Arabia's state-owned Saudi Aramco informed its term buyers in Asia on Nov 6 that it raised the December-loading OSP formula for the country's flagship crude Arab Light (AL) by $1.40 from the previous month to a premium of $2.70 to Dubai/Oman average. The hike came as backwardation in Dubai quotes widened rapidly amid a recovery in crude demand across the globe. But market players had predicted that the OSP for AL would be raised by about 80cts from the previous month. As for the sharp increase in the OSP, "The OSPs for October to November-loading were undervalued, so that Saudi Arabia was believed to have raised the December-loading OSP this time to correct the low levels," said an end-user in Northeast Asia.

Africa/Europe/Russia/America

　Meanwhile, around three cargoes of December-loading Congo's Djeno was said to be unsold. Crack margins for low sulfur fuel oil worsened in Asia, so that evaluations for medium/heavy grades decreased. In the trade of December-loading Djeno, Europe's Perenco sold one cargo to China International United Petroleum & Chemicals Co (UNIPEC) in its sell tender closed on Nov 2 and Europe's Glencore sold one cargo as January arrival to India's IOC.

Asia Pacific

　In the trade of Malaysian grades, a combined seven to eight cargoes of Kimanis would be supplied for forward January loading. On a preliminary basis, Malaysia's state-run Petronas would be allocated with three to four cargoes. Meanwhile, Royal Dutch Shell was poised to handle one cargo each for the first-half and second-half month loading. Besides that, US ConocoPhillips received one cargo for mid-month loading while Brunei Energy would also handle one cargo for early-month loading. Brunei Energy was expected to float a tender to sell the cargo as early as next week.