SINGAPORE, Sept 20 (Reuters) -Middle East crude benchmarks Oman, Dubai and Murban eased on Friday after Asian refiners completed most of their spot purchases for November-loading cargoes.

Spot premiums for Dubai and Murban are nearly on par at $1.89 and $1.88, respectively, with a cargo of the Abu Dhabi light crude delivered in the window for the first time this month.

Separately, Iraq's SOMO has sold 500,000 barrels of Qaiyarah crude to U.S. refiner Valero Energy VLO.N, out of the 2 million barrels it offered via a tender on the S&P Platts Market on Close process late on Thursday, trade sources said.

Iraq's offer of prompt-loading Qaiyarah crude comes at a time when Asian buyers have already completed their purchases for October loading, and after China stepped up imports of similar quality heavy and high-sulphur oil from Canada following the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline that has shortened the distance for shipments from Canada to North Asia.

The cargo to load on Oct. 8-10 was sold at a discount of $28.30 a barrel to the average of Platts Oman and Dubai quotes on a free on board basis from New Dynasty, the sources said.

New Dynasty is a very large crude carrier that is used as floating storage at Khor al Zubair.

There are still 1.5 million barrels of Qaiyarah crude left unsold, one of the sources said.

ASIA-PACIFIC CRUDE

Vietnam's Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical has purchased its first cargo of Murban crude oil produced in the United Arab Emirates as it diversifies import sources for its Dung Quat refinery, two sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.

The 300,000-barrel cargo will be delivered in December, one of the sources said.

This will be the refinery's first trial of a high-sulphur grade, he added. The plant typically processes low-sulphur, or sweet, crude.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

Cash Dubai's premium to swaps fell 37 cents to $2.08 a barrel.

Reliance Industries will deliver a November-loading Murban crude cargo to Vitol while ExxonMobil will deliver an Upper Zakum cargo to Mitsui following the deals.

PRICES ($/BBL)

REFINERY

China's newest refiner Shandong Yulong Petrochemical is starting up one of its two 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) crude units on Friday in east China's Shandong province, four sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

NEWS

Oil refiners in Asia, Europe and the United States are facing a drop in profitability to multi-year lows, marking a downturn for an industry that had enjoyed surging returns post-pandemic and underlining the extent of the current slowdown in global demand.

Indian refiners are jointly negotiating to purchase Russian oil for next year, a government source said on Thursday, with suppliers mostly using Russian insurance for crude priced above a $60 per barrel cap.

India has discussed raising oil imports from Brazil in a meeting with the head of the South American nation's state-run oil giant Petrobras PETR4.SA, India's oil minister said on Friday.

China has released new oil export quotas for the rest of 2024, comprising 8 million metric tons of clean refined fuel and 1 million tons of marine fuel, two Chinese commodities consultancies and several trade sources said on Friday.

Shell's SHEL.L planned sale of a stake in the Schwedt refinery in Germany is being delayed by pending lawsuits by third parties, two people familiar with the matter said, stalling a divestment the company has waited years for.

Russia's seaborne oil product exports in August fell to 9.074 million metric tons, down 2.3% month on month, data from industry sources and Reuters calculations showed.

For crude prices, oil product cracks and refining margins, please click on the RICs below.

Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Sharon Singleton

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