--Middle East

　In trade for Basrah Medium (BM), demand from China and India was strong. Energy companies in China and India continued buying BM as an alternative to Iranian grades and Russian grades whose supply was likely to decrease in the future. Besides, many end-users sensed that the value of BM was attractive relative to other Middle East medium-heavy grades such as Dubai and Al Shaheen. Meanwhile, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) purchased 1mil barrels of January-loading BM via a tender closed on Wednesday. The awarded price was said to have been at premiums of above 50cts to Dubai quotes although details such as the winner were unknown.

--Africa/Europe/Russia/America

　In the trade of African grades, supply of Niger's Meleck crude has halted. Exports of Meleck started early year. The details were unclear, but an issue of a pipeline transporting Meleck emerged. As a result, there was no supply plan for January-loading Meleck crude. For December loading, US Chevron earlier purchased one cargo from Sennina at a small premium to Dated Brent as reported.

--Asia Pacific

　In trade for February-loading Malaysian grades, Malaysia's state-owned Petronas on Tuesday sold Labuan via a tender. The winner was European Vitol and the awarded price was at premiums in the low $7's to Dated Brent. One trader in Singapore noted that the price was higher than usual cargoes by 60-70cts since the awarded cargo was end-February loading. Vitol was expected to bring the cargo to the Geelong Refinery (with production capacity of 130,000 barrels per day) in Australia.