State-owned QatarEnergy has raised the term premium for al-Shaheen crude oil loading in January as demand rose from Indian refiners seeking alternatives to replace Russian oil, four trade sources said on Friday.
It set the January prices at 84 cents a barrel above Dubai quotes, up from the 54 cents for December-loading cargoes and the lowest in more than a year due to abundant Middle Eastern supply.
The price was set after QatarEnergy awarded six al-Shaheen cargoes to Totsa, the trading arm of TotalEnergies, Indian refiner HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd and Vitol via its monthly tender, three of the people said.
Separately, the company sold one January-loading Qatar Marine crude cargo to Unipec, the trading arm of Chinese oil major Sinopec, at a premium around five cents to Dubai quotes, they added. It also sold a Qatar Land cargo to India’s Reliance, the sources said.
Indian refiners were absent from Qatar’s tender participation this year, according to Reuters records of spot crude oil tenders. But they have been scouting for alternatives after imports of Russian oil were sharply curtailed to comply with Western sanctions imposed last month on two top Russian producers.
(Reporting by Siyi Liu in Singapore; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Saad Sayeed)
