(Repeats story from Friday with no changes to text)
By Muyu Xu
SINGAPORE, April 14 (Reuters) - Middle East spot crude
prices are climbing on expectations of tighter supplies ahead of
peak fuel demand in the northern summer, squeezing Asian
refiners' margins and prompting them to secure supplies from
other regions, traders and analysts said.
Middle Eastern crude benchmarks Oman, Dubai and Murban have
recovered in April back to early March levels after the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and
allies, known as OPEC+, caught the market off guard by
announcing further output cuts from May to the rest of the year.
State oil giant Saudi Aramco also unexpectedly raised
official selling prices (OSPs) in May, making the bulk of Asia's
term purchases more expensive even as it fully met Asian
refiners' crude requirements.
Some refiners turned to the spot market for more oil and
pushed up prices for sour grades from Qatari al-Shaheen, Abu
Dhabi's Upper Zakum, Das and Murban, traders said.
Firm demand from Asian refiners pushed up the May term price
of Qatari al-Shaheen crude to $2.37 a barrel over Dubai quotes,
up from about $2.01 a barrel in the previous month, traders
said, after Malaysia's Petronas and PetroChina were awarded
cargoes in a tender.
The al-Shaheen price is closely watched by the market as a
bellwether for medium sour grades.
Spot premiums for June-loading Abu Dhabi's Upper Zakum, Das
and Murban against Dubai quotes rose about $1 a barrel from the
previous month.
Some Chinese and South Korean refiners have nominated
450,000 barrels per day (bpd) less crude from Saudi Aramco in
May than their contractual volume because of high prices,
consultancy Energy Aspects said in a note.
Rising crude prices are eating into refiners' margins, with
gasoil and gasoline cracks falling 28% and 23%, respectively, so
far this month. A couple of refiners in China and South Korea have bought
U.S. Mars crude for May loading to replace Middle East supplies,
trading sources said.
That drove spot Mars crude premiums up to about $4.50 a
barrel to Dubai quotes for cargoes delivered to Northeast Asia
in June, up from premiums of about $3.50 a barrel a month
earlier, they said.
(Reporting by Muyu Xu; Editing by Florence Tan and Kim Coghill)
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