--Middle East

ADNOC finalized the Official Selling Prices (OSPs) for its key November-loading Abu Dhabi crudes, including Murban, on Thursday. (For the details, please see Market News below). Among them, the OSP for Murban supplied at Fujairah Port was set at a premium of $11.00 to Dubai quotes. The price was set close to market expectations. A Singapore trader said that the Murban OSP was expected to be a premium slightly above $10.00 to Dubai quotes.

ADNOC finalized the Official Selling Prices (OSPs) for Das, Umm Lulu, and Upper Zakum, targeting supplies via Ship-to-Ship (STS) transfer in the waters off Fujairah and Oman. Currently, Abu Dhabi crudes sold by ADNOC, except for Murban, were virtually all supplied via STS basis offshore Fujairah or Oman, and sales from Persian Gulf loading points such as Das Island have become extremely limited. Therefore, ADNOC appeared to have finalized the OSPs for each crude grade on a STS basis, in line with the realistic supply situation. A Singapore trader said that the OSP for Das "was set at a slightly lower level compared to the concluded prices of STS-based cargoes sold by ADNOC in recent tenders. ADNOC apparently hopes to increase sales volume."

-- Africa/Europe/Russia/America

Indonesia's state-owned Pertamina closed an additional buy tender for December arrival at 14:00 Jakarta time on Thursday with validity until 20:00 on October 10. Through the tender, Pertamina was trying to buy two cargoes of 950,000 barrels each, for Dec 1-3 arrival and Dec 6-8 arrival. Both cargoes are sweet crude for the Balikpapan refinery (360,000 b/d). Pertamina was looking to buy grades from Angola, Nigeria, the US and Brazil, among others.

--Asia Pacific

In trade for Papua New Guinea grades, Australia's Santos issued a sell tender for December-loading Kutubu. The tender offered one cargo for December 24-28 loading. Both the deadline and validity are October 12. With crude tanker freight costs surging globally, players in Brunei, Singapore and South Korea are considering buying Kutubu because of its relatively short shipping distance.