Dubai benchmark rebounds but remains at multi-year lows amid strong supply

Middle East crude benchmark Dubai's discount narrowed slightly on the last day of trade for June, but remained at multi-year lows amid strong supply pressure.

The region's benchmarks, including Oman and Dubai, slipped into discounts this month after the U.S. and Iran struck an interim deal, allowing some of the stranded crude supply to exit the Gulf.

Also, the market was swarmed by offers of large volumes of prompt crude from producers such as the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq.

ADNOC issued its fifth tender this month, closing on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Iraq's SOMO has offered wide discounts to its official selling prices to encourage term buyers to lift Basrah crude from its terminal inside the Middle East Gulf in July, according to trade sources and a document reviewed by Reuters.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

Cash Dubai's discount to swaps rose 5 cents to $1.55 a barrel.

PRICES ($/BBL)

NEWS

Oil prices slipped on Tuesday, and were set for their biggest quarterly loss since the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, with investors eyeing potential U.S.-Iran talks in Doha amid a strained interim ceasefire in the four-month-old war. (O/R)

Japanese oil refiner Idemitsu Kosan shut a 140,000 barrels-per-day crude distillation unit at its Hokkaido refinery in northern Japan on June 24 for scheduled maintenance, said a company spokesperson, who declined to say when the unit is expected to resume operations.

Oil and gas condensate production at Kazakhstan's Karachaganak field is proceeding at a reduced rate following last week's drone attack on the Orenburg gas processing plant in Russia, the head of state energy firm KazMunayGas said on Tuesday.

Stocks of crude oil in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell by 5.5 million barrels to 325.7 million barrels, the lowest level since May 1983, according to data from the Department of Energy.

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