Kuwait sells naphtha at year’s top premium

Kuwait agreed to sell naphtha to Asia under one-year contracts from December through next November at a premium equal to the highest differential that it charged over benchmarks for the past year.

Libya’s former leader Muammar Qaddafi was killed in his home town of Sirte, possibly enabling the nation to speed efforts to revive crude output to normal levels, said Nuri Berruien, the chairman of state-run National Oil Corp.

Qaddafi’s death after more than four decades in power may “help in getting a lot of fields back into production as soon as possible,” Berruien said in an interview. Libya, holder of Africa’s biggest crude reserves, aims to raise supply to 750,000 barrels a day by the end of this year from 430,000 barrels a day now, he said.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries will decide at its next meeting in December whether to change its output ceiling in view of an increase in exports of Libyan crude, Kuwaiti Oil Minister Mohammad al-Busairy said. Kuwait, like Libya, is an Opec member.

Kuwait pumped 2.9 million barrels of oil a day in September, al-Busairy said.

Qatar International Petroleum Marketing Co sold 3 million barrels of Al-Shaheen crude for loading in December to Exxon Mobil Corp, Chevron Corp and SK Innovation Co, according to three traders who participate in the market. Tasweeq, as the Qatari marketer is known, sold five cargoes of 600,000 barrels each at premiums of up to $2.50 a barrel above the price for Dubai crude published by pricing service Platts.

Iraq’s northern Kurdish region is exporting 100,000 barrels a day of oil and may increase that amount by half next year, according to Thamir Ghadhban, chairman of the advisory commission to Iraq’s prime minister.

In regional trading, Oman oil futures were little changed, rising 2 cents to close October 21 at $106.26 a barrel, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Dubai crude slipped 0.1 per cent in the week to $105.63 a barrel.

The spread between Dubai and Brent crudes declined, with Dubai selling for $3.93 a barrel less than the European benchmark, compared with a discount of $8.92 seven days earlier.

Kuwait Petroleum Corp agreed to sell its Full-Range grade naphtha to buyers in Asia from December 2011 through November 2012 at $18.50 a metric tonne above benchmark prices, according to two people involved in the negotiations. The premium is in line with the $18.50 a tonne differential for shipments agreed to during the period from August 2011 to July 2012.

The state-owned company has been selling cargoes at $12 a tonne over quoted prices for December 2010 through November 2011. Kuwait last week made its initial offer for naphtha for term contracts from December at a premium of $23.50 a tonne, two people said.

Qatar Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell Plc sold the first commercial shipment of base oil from their Pearl gas-to-liquids plant, Shell said.

Iran will soon start exporting aviation fuel processed at its Bandar Abbas refinery in the country’s south, Fars reported, citing Deputy Oil Minister Alireza Zeighami. Several East Asian countries have shown interest in Iranian jet fuel, the state-run news agency reported, without giving a date for the start of sales or identifying potential buyers.

Kuwait National Petroleum Co resumed operations at crude- oil processing units of Mina al Ahmadi refinery, its largest facility, following planned maintenance shutdowns, company spokesman Mohammed Al-Ajmi said.

The refiner also shut a crude unit and an atmospheric desulfurization plant at its 270,000 barrel-a-day Mina Abdulla refinery for planned maintenance, he said. The maintenance work is to last one month, he said in August.