Middle East Oils Little Changed After Rising on Price Cuts

By Christian Schmollinger

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Middle East crude oils were little changed after rising as cuts in official selling prices are expected to spur demand for cargoes.

The discount on Abu Dhabi's Murban grade remained at 53 cents a barrel and Qatar Marine's discount stayed at 58 cents a barrel to their official selling prices, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Last week, Saudi Aramco, the world's largest state oil company, and other Middle East producers including Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. and Qatar Petroleum cut official selling prices, or OSPs, for their crudes after demand declined.

``Much lower OSPs are most likely to lend a hand to spot differentials,'' JBC Energy said in its weekly report. ``The lower UAE and Qatari OSPs might help the grades of both countries to recover from the record discounts seen for November.''

Oman crude for December loading was little changed at minus 1 cent to its official price, according to Bloomberg data. Oman crude for immediate loading gained $2.09, or 2.9 percent, to $74.89 a barrel. Dubai crude oil for loading in December rose 2.9 percent to $74.10 a barrel and Murban increased 2.8 percent to $75.72 a barrel.

Oman crude oil futures for December delivery rose $2.25, or 3.1 percent, to $74.65 a barrel on the Dubai Mercantile Exchange at 5:56 p.m. Singapore time, with 313 contracts traded. The settlement price was set at $74.41 a barrel at 12:30 p.m. Dubai time.

The Brent-Dubai exchange for swaps for November narrowed 7 cents to $3.78 a barrel and the exchange for swaps for December was unchanged at $4.12 a barrel, according to data from PVM Oil Associates. The exchange for swaps is the price difference between the Brent and Dubai swaps contracts.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christian Schmollinger in Singapore at christian.s@bloomberg.net.