The Ministry of Oil and Gas (MOG) has sold a cargo of Oman blend crude via DME Auctions for a high premium above the Official Selling Price (OSP), according to a release on DME Auctions website.

As many as 16 participants took part in the auction on the DME Auctions platform with 29 active bids being placed during the 2-minute period for the 2-million-barrel cargo of November-loading Oman Blend crude. The cargo was awarded at a premium of $0.18 per barrel over the November OSP, the release said.

According to Raid Al-Salami, Managing Director, DME, “The continuous success of DME auctions underlines the need for a robust and transparent mechanism to buy and sell spot cargoes. The platform has auctioned 39.6 million barrels from 4 different grades including Oman Crude Oil, Basrah Light, Basrah Heavy and Kimanis and generated premiums of $17.3 million above the official selling price.” The premium achieved by Oman blend crude reflects the current strength of the Middle East crude oil market, particularly in Oman, the release added.

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Earlier in July, MOG had managed to achieve yet another strong premium for the October Oman blend crude above the October OSP via DME auctions. According to the DME release, the Oman OSP is calculated on a volume-weighted average of daily DME Oman Crude Oil (OQD) Marker Prices over the month.

Meanwhile, according to latest figures released by Oman’s National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the country’s crude oil production, including condensates, stood at 175.6mn barrels in the first six months of the current year, showing an increase of 0.2% compared to the corresponding period of 2018.

NCSI figures, collated for the six-month period under consideration, showed that Oman’s crude oil production fell by 0.6% to 154.8mn barrels. However, during the same period, the production of condensates went up by 6.2% to 20.8mn barrels.

The average daily crude production stood at 970.6 thousand barrels per day, at the end of June 2019, a slight increase of 0.2% against the 968.6 thousand barrels per day, produced during the same period last year.

According to NCSI data, the average price, during June, fell by 0.6% to touch US$64.3 per barrel. Oman’s crude fetched a price of US$63.9 per barrel in the same month of 2018.

Oman exported 145.5mn barrels of crude oil in the January-June 2019 as against 146.2mn barrels a year ago, thus recording a decline of 0.5% in shipments, data show.