Oman Sells Oil Cargo via Dubai Mercantile Exchange Auction

The sultanate’s Ministry of Energy and Minerals sold a cargo of 2 million barrels of Omani crude via the Dubai Mercantile Exchange’s (DME) auction platform, according to a statement issued by the DME. The barrel cargo of November-loading Oman crude was awarded at a premium of US$0.21 per barrel over the November 2023 official selling price of Oman crude, as stated by the DME. The DME Auctions platform saw 14 participants with 16 active bids placed during the two-minute period for a cargo of 2 million barrels of Omani crude, according to the statement. It added that a total volume of 45.6 million barrels was auctioned, generating USUS$22.11 million in premiums. The official selling price of Oman crude is calculated as a volume-weighted average of daily DME Oman Crude Oil (OQD) marker prices over the month. The DME Auctions platform aims to provide commodity market participants with the flexibility to buy and sell physical commodities via an electronic auction system, offering customers the advantage of a transparent platform for trading commodities for immediate delivery.

Earlier, the DME had reported that physical deliveries of Oman crude on the Dubai Mercantile Exchange recorded a sharp increase during the first quarter of 2023. DME, the premier international energy futures exchange in the Middle East, delivered 63.77 million barrels of Oman crude via its exchange delivery mechanism in the first quarter. This marked an 18% increase from the 54.01 million barrels delivered in the same quarter of 2022. DME Oman Crude Oil futures are a physically settled contract that serves as a core Middle East crude pricing benchmark. The contract’s daily pricing is used by Middle East national oil companies (NOCs) to price oil exports from the Middle East to Asia and acts as a fundamental indicator for crude oil supply-demand in Asia. Despite steady production, Oman’s oil exports saw a 5.7% year-on-year decline in the first seven months of 2023, primarily due to a significant drop in shipments to India. Oman’s total oil exports decreased to 178.9 million barrels during the first seven months of 2023, compared to the 189.7 million barrels recorded in the corresponding period last year, according to data released by the National Center for Statistics and Information (NCSI).

Oman’s oil exports to India, which was the second-largest buyer of Omani crude last year, plummeted by 90.1% to 2.71 million barrels in the January–July period of 2023, compared to 27.37 million barrels during the same period in 2022, as shown in NCSI data. China accounted for approximately 91% of Oman’s total oil shipments from January to July 2023. Oman’s total oil output remained stable at around 223 million barrels during the first seven months of 2023, in comparison to the same period last year, according to NCSI data. The daily average output increased marginally by 0.2% this year to 1.054 million barrels per day during the January–July period, compared to 1.052 million barrels per day for the same period in 2022. The average price at which Oman sold its crude during the first seven months of 2023 remained 13.3% lower at US$80.5 per barrel, compared to US$92.8 per barrel achieved in the same period in 2022.