Middle East Crude-Benchmarks mixed; Saudi Arabia may keep Dec Arab Light price little changed

Middle Eastern benchmarks traded mixed in the first trading session of November as the market waited for major oil producers to reveal their official selling prices (OSPs).

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia may keep the price for its flagship Arab Light crude little changed to Asia after five months of price hikes as the market, rattled by geopolitical tensions, juggles supply uncertainty with declining demand.

State oil giant Saudi Aramco may set the official selling price (OSP) for its medium sour crude at around $4 a barrel over the Oman/Dubai average, according to five respondents surveyed by Reuters.

OSP
The official selling price of October-loading Malaysian crude oil (MCO) grades OSP/MY has been set at $102.10 a barrel, according to a price document issued by state oil company Petronas, down by $1.45 a barrel from the previous month.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
Cash Dubai’s premium to swaps rose 33 cents to $1.98 a barrel.

NEWS
OPEC oil output has risen for a third straight month in October, a Reuters survey found on Tuesday, led by increases in Nigeria and Angola and despite ongoing cuts by Saudi Arabia and other members of the wider OPEC+ alliance to support the market.

Discounts on Russian oil sales have reduced from levels seen in the June quarter, said Vivek C Tongaonkar, head of finance at Indian refiner Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd MRPL.NS.

Russia’s November exports of ultra low-sulphur diesel (ULSD) from the Baltic Sea port of Primorsk are set to rise by 136% month on month to 1.6 million metric tons, from 0.7 million tons scheduled for October, two traders said on Wednesday.

U.S. field production of crude oil rose to a new monthly record in August at 13.05 million barrels per day, the Energy Information Administration said on Tuesday.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Muyu Xu; Editing by Sohini Goswami)