Murban Crude Priced at a Premium; Mercuria Buys Dubai From SK
February 08, 2012, 12:43 PM ESTBy Ramsey Al-Rikabi
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Abu Dhabi’s Murban oil was priced at a premium for the first time in almost eight weeks.
Murban rose 6 cents to be assessed 1 cent above its official selling price, the first time it has been at a premium since Dec. 16, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Two Dubai partial cargo were sold, according to a survey of traders who monitor the Platts pricing window. Mercuria Energy Trading SA bought two 25,000 barrel lots for April from SK Innovation Co. for $113.81 a barrel.
OAO Rosneft is offering 100,000 metric tons of Russian Sokol crude for loading from April 1 to April 10, according to a tender document obtained by Bloomberg News.
The profit from refining a barrel of Dubai crude into fuel such as gasoline or diesel, known as the cracking margin, averaged $6.40 a barrel this week in Singapore. That’s down from $7.36 last week, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Oman futures for April delivery rose 32 cents to $115.02 a barrel on the Dubai Mercantile Exchange at 5:03 p.m. Singapore time with 1,937 contracts traded. The settlement price was $115.17 at 12:30 p.m. in Dubai.
The March Brent-Dubai exchange for swaps, which measures the European benchmark contract against the Persian Gulf grade, fell 13 cents to $2.97 a barrel, according to data from PVM Oil Associates Ltd. The April exchange for swaps dropped 12 cents to $2.99.
--Editor: Mike Anderson.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ramsey Al-Rikabi in Singapore at ralrikabi@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net
