Middle East Crude-Benchmarks mixed; Saudi cuts July deliveries to some Asian refiners

SINGAPORE, June 10 (Reuters) - Middle East crude benchmarks Oman and Dubai gained on Friday while Murban edged lower, as Saudi Aramco notified some Asian refiners of less cargo deliveries for July in a sign of tight supply in the region.

Japanese refiners have snapped up at least five August-loading al-Shaheen crude cargoes, trade sources said, way ahead of the usual trading cycle for Middle East oil, signalling robust demand.

India's IOC awarded tenders to Exxonmobil and Chevron, buying 1 million barrels of Murban and 3 million barrels of West African crude.

Taiwan's Formosa issued a tender seeking sour crude for August delivery.

SAUDI ALLOCATION

Saudi Aramco 2222.SE has notified at least five North Asian refiners, mostly Chinese, that it will be supplying less than contracted volumes of crude oil in July, several sources with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday. nL1N2XX0G1

The cuts to Chinese refiners come as more cheap Russian oil heads to the world's top oil importer, which has refused to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Chinese oil demand has also been depressed by COVID-19 restrictions in the past two months.

OSP

The producer has set the July Kuwait Export Crude (KEC) prices at $6.15 a barrel above the average of DME Oman and Platts Dubai quotes, compared with $4.35 a barrel for June. nL4N2XX0GB

Kuwait raised the July official selling prices for its crude grades from the previous month, but they remain lower than the record levels set for May, a price document reviewed by Reuters showed on Friday.

WINDOW

Cash Dubai's premium to swaps rose 18 cents to $7.52 a barrel.

PRICES ($/BBL)

ASIAN REFINERY

Japanese oil refiner Taiyo Oil Co shut two crude distillation units (CDU) last month at its 138,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Shikoku refinery in western Japan for scheduled maintenance, a company spokesperson said on Friday. nL4N2XP156

The 106,000-bpd No.1 CDU was shut on May 20 and the 32,000-bpd No.2 CDU was closed on May 21 and they are slated to be restarted in early- or mid-August, he told Reuters over the phone.

NEWS

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russian companies will not block off their oil wells despite the West's efforts to lessen its dependence on energy supplies from Moscow. nL1N2XW1SG

An oversupply of naphtha at a time of poor demand has squeezed the product's Asian margins to their weakest levels since the 2008 global financial crisis, traders and analysts said. nL4N2XW1RE

Norway's petroleum output could be reduced if workers go on strike on Sunday, the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association (NOG) said on Friday. nL8N2XX1R6

Groups at Libya's Es Sider and Ras Lanuf oil terminals have closed them, two oil engineers in the country's oil crescent said, in an apparent expansion of a partial blockade of the country's energy output. nL8N2XW5JX

Ecuadorean state-run oil company Petroecuador on Thursday announced two auctions, hoping to attract private company bids for a flagship offshore natural gas field and a contract to modernize the Esmeraldas refinery. nL1N2XW2YU

For crude prices, oil product cracks and refining margins, please click on the RICs below.

(Reporting by Muyu Xu and Florence Tan; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

((muyu.xu@thomsonreuters.com; +86 10 56692117;))

CRUDE OIL MARKET NEWS      
Crude oil tenders in Asia                       CRU/TENDA
Crude oil supply outages in Asia                CRU/OUT-ASIA-O      
Refinery outages in Asia                        REF/OUT-ASIA-O      
Global arbitrage news and flows                 O/CRUDEARB      
W.African crude imports to Asia,  monthly       O/WAFRICA1      
REFINERY MAINTENANCE DIARIES      
Asia REF/A   Middle East REF/ME   Europe REF/E      
                       
NATIONAL CRUDE IMPORT DATA      
Japan     METI/JP1   China   O/CHINA1      
India     O/INDIA2   S.Korea O/KOREA1      
Indonesia O/INDO1-CRU         
                       
CRUDE OIL INVENTORY DATA      
Japan O/JAPAN1  US EIA/S  Europe O/EUROIL1      
                    
CRUDE OIL PRODUCTION/OILFIELD NEWS      
OPEC output survey OPEC/O          New Africa fields    AFR/NEW 
New projects       ENERGY/NEW      New Americas  fields AM/NEW
CRUDE OIL MARKET REPORTS      
Middle East             CRU/MAsia-Pacific         CRU/AP      
West Africa             CRU/WAF  North Sea            CRU/E      
Asia outlook            ASIA/CRU Europe outlook       EUR/CRU      
Global futures report   O/R      Technicals report    O/I      
                            
PRICES      
For all Official Selling  Prices       OSP/O      
For a POLL on oil  prices              O/POLL      
NYMEX and ICE oil  futures             OILOIL      
TOCOM crude oil  futures               0#JCO:      
Dubai, Oman swaps and  spread          ASIA/SWAP/CRUDE      
Middle East physical crude diffs       CRUDE/ASIA2      
Australia physical crude, Tapis swaps  CRUDE/ASIA1      
Asia-Pacific physical crude            CRUDE/ASIA3      
All Asian crude oil  differentials     0#C-DIF-A
All Asian crude oil outright  prices   0#C-A