Middle East Crude-Benchmarks fall as OPEC+ delays meeting, China demand growth to ease

Middle Eastern benchmarks Oman, Dubai and Murban fell on Thursday as OPEC+ unexpectedly delayed the ministerial meeting, suggesting the producers struggled to reach agreements on output levels in 2024.

The meeting, now postponed to Nov.30, is expected to discuss possible output reductions as oil prices hover around $80 a barrel and on market concerns about weakening demand amid global recessions.

China’s oil demand growth is likely to ease in the first half of 2024 to around 4%, according to consultancies, with resurgent consumption from the aviation and petrochemical sectors offset by weaker diesel usage due to an ongoing property sector crunch.

Meanwhile, the suspension of U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan oil has rattled its biggest customers, China’s independent refiners, who are now holding off on making new purchases amid wide discrepancies in offer prices, trading sources say.

OSP

Dubai has set its official differential to Oman futures 1OQc1 for February at a premium of $0.05 per barrel, the Dubai Department of Petroleum Affairs said on Thursday.

The differential will be applied to the average of daily settlements for the front month February Oman contract at the end of December to set Dubai’s official selling price (OSP) for February-loading crude.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

Cash Dubai’s premium to swaps dropped 14 cents to $1.63 per barrel.

Phillips 66 will deliver one January-loading Murban to Gunvor following the trade.

NEWS

The current $800 billion invested annually in the global oil and gas sector could be halved by 2030 if a goal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is to be reached, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a report on Thursday.

U.S. energy firms this week added oil and natural gas rigs for a second week in a row, energy services firm Baker Hughes BKR.O said in its closely followed report on Wednesday.

Morgan Stanley sees prices of each barrel of Brent crude supported at a level in the mid-$80s, as it expects producer group OPEC to continue to restrain production and stabilise oil inventories broadly at present levels.

India plans to ask state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp ONGC.NS to consider launching a rights issue to help fund green projects at refining arm Hindustan Petroleum Corp HPCL.NS, two sources said, an exercise that could raise about $1.9 billion.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Muyu Xu; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)