Middle East crude benchmarks were mixed on Monday, with Oman edging higher while Dubai slipped ahead of a meeting by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries this week.
OPEC and allies led by Russia, known as OPEC+, expect the impact on the oil market from the Omicron coronavirus variant to be mild and temporary, keeping the door open for a further increase in output, a technical report seen by Reuters showed on Sunday. u
Three sources from the producer group told Reuters on Monday OPEC+ are expected to go ahead with a planned 400,000 bpd production increase.
The OPEC members will meet on Monday at 1300 GMT to discuss the appointment of a new secretary general to succeed Nigeria's Mohammad Barkindo, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
This will be followed by a meeting of OPEC+ on Tuesday to debate whether to go ahead with raising output targets by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) in February.
WINDOW
Cash Dubai's premium jumped 77 cents from the previous session to $1.48 a barrel on Monday, its highest in over two weeks. Seller-Buyer Price Uinpec-Reliance 76.89 Reliance-Total 76.85 Unipec-Total 76.89 Unipec-Gunvor (Oman) 76.95 Unipec-Gunvor (Oman) 76.95
PRICES ($/BBL)
CURRENT PREV SESSION DME OMAN 76.95 76.69 DME OMAN DIFF TO DUBAI 1.54 NA CASH DUBAI 76.89 77.10
MALAYSIA OSP
Meanwhile, Malaysia set the official selling price of a basket of December-loading crude oil grades OSP/MY at $78.80 a barrel, a price document showed on Monday.
NEWS
China's commodities markets suffered through a turbulent year in 2021 as an energy crunch and subsequent government intervention roiled the prices of products from thermal coal to urea, whipsawing them from record highs to monthly lows in weeks.
(Reporting by Roslan Khasawneh; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
