Middle East

　Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) informed its term buyers on Sunday that raised the February-loading official selling price (OSP) formula for Murban by 25cts from the previous month to a premium of 75cts to Dubai quotes for February-loading. Saudi Arabian state-owned Saudi Aramco increased the February-loading OSP for rival crude Arab Extra Light (AEL) by 50cts from the previous month. In addition, Saudi Arabia would reduce production by 1.0 mil barrels per day (b/d) voluntarily in February and March, raising views of increasing spot demand. These factors led to the gain in the Murban OSP. Elsewhere, ADNOC kept the spreads of Umm Lulu and Das OSPs against the Murban OSP steady from the previous month. Meanwhile, ADNOC raised the OSP for Upper Zakum against the Murban OSP by 5cts from the previous month. As a result, the Upper Zakum OSP exceeded the Murban OSP for the first time in six months.

Africa/Europe/Russia/America

　Spot differentials for March-loading Sakhalin Sokols dropped. A slide in the rival Abu Dhabi Murban market sent the market for Sokol lower. Japan Petroleum Exploration Co (JAPEX) sold one cargo of Sokol on Thursday. The buyer was said to be South Korea's SK Energy and the price was at a premium of 80cts to Dubai quotes. SK earlier secured one cargo from India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) via tender as reported, so that SK purchased a total of two cargoes of Sokol for March-loading. As for the slide for the Sokol market, "In China, gasoil inventories are increasing. In addition, travel is restricted due to increasing cases of Covid-19," said a trader in Northeast Asia, indicating a slowdown in Chinese demand also weighed on the market.

Asia Pacific

　Spot differentials for overall March-loading Malaysian grades softened. In Malaysia, the COVID-19 outbreak was expanding. Under the situations, domestic crude processing rates appeared to be lowered, so that more Malaysian grades were heard released on the spot market. As for Malaysian Kikeh, PTTEP had a spot cargo in addition to US Conoco Phillips. "It is too optimistic that Malaysian crude oil like Labuan would be traded at premiums of close to mid-$2 to DTD Brent," a Singapore trader pointed out. The trader said the tradable levels would be at premiums of low-$2s to DTD Brent.