SINGAPORE - Middle East crude benchmarks eased on Wednesday in quiet trade with traders focused on Asia-Pacific and Russian crude grades.

ASIA-PACIFIC CRUDE:

- Exxon Mobil likely sold 300,000 to 550,000 barrels of a Banyu Urip cargo at $4-$4.50 a barrel to Dated Brent on a free-on-board basis, an industry source said, though this could not immediately be confirmed.

- Japan's Inpex may have sold a Van Gogh cargo, a source said, though details were scarce.

A second trader said a Van Gogh cargo offered by Quadrant energy may have been deferred to March 26 to 30 from the initial March 15 to 19.

- PV Oil has offered 300,000 barrels of Bunga Kekwa for March 9 to 15 loading and 300,000 barrels of Bunga Orkid for March 18 to 24 loading, an industry source said.

Both tenders close on Jan. 24 and are valid until Jan. 31.

 

RUSSIAN CRUDE:

- Sakhalin Energy sold its cargoes for loading between March and April at about $1.50 to $1.90 a barrel to Dubai quotes, industry sources said.

The buyers include Chinese, one of them said, though details were not immediately available.

 

WINDOW: Three cash Dubai partials exchanged hands on Wednesday with Shell on the buy-side and Unipec and Reliance on the sell-side, an industry source said. Seller-Buyer Price ($) Unipec-Shell 61.25 Reliance-Shell 61.25 Unipec-Shell 61.25

 

NEWS

* Japan's 2018 oil imports fell to the lowest since at least 1979 while its liquefied natural gas (LNG) purchases and coal imports also dropped, reflecting the country's declining population and slow economic growth. 

* U.S. oil output from seven major shale formations is expected to rise by nearly 63,000 barrels per day (bpd) in February to a record 8.179 million bpd, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a monthly report on Tuesday. 

* China's imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in December soared 25 percent from the same period a year earlier to a monthly record of 6.29 million tonnes, customs data showed on Wednesday. 

* Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates has become the latest major port to ban a type of fuel exhaust cleaning system to comply with a coming tightening in rules regarding global sulphur emissions, mirroring similar moves in Singapore and China. 

* Saudi Aramco, the world's top oil producer, is looking to acquire natural gas assets in the United States and is willing to spend "billions of dollars" there as it aims to become a global gas player, the company's CEO said on Tuesday. 

 

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(Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu) ((Jessica.Jaganathan@thomsonreuters.com; +65 6870 3822; Reuters Messaging: jessica.jaganathan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net; Twitter: https://twitter.com/j3ssi3))de oil outright prices 0#C-A ))