"I expect the Murban grade would continue to trade at discounts (for April-loading barrels)," said a trader at a Japanese refiner.
Shutdowns of crude distillation units between April and June in Japan will remove an average 409,300 barrels per day (bpd), or 9 percent off a total refining capacity of 4.77 million bpd, data from refinery officials and industry sources showed.
Despite the soft demand, ADNOC was expected to provide similar a volume of incremental supplies to Asian term buyers for April-loading barrels, compared with March, which would weigh on spot differentials for April-loadings, traders said.
Talk circulated that either Abu Dhabi's Umm Shaif or Lower Zakum crude had traded at a small premium to ADNOC but details were not available. Umm Shaif and Lower Zakum have a smaller output than Murban and sometimes command a premium to it.
Spot differentials for Middle East benchmark sour Oman were pegged at a 15-to-20-cent premium to its OSP set by the Ministry of Oil and Gas on Monday, largely unchanged from a 12-to-22 cent premium on Friday.
Spot differentials for April-loading Oman have eased from a peak of 22-cent premium last week, but may rise again when end-users re-emerge later, traders said.
In the sweet crude market, Indian Oil Corp has bought close to 2 million barrels of Nigerian Bonny Light from Total at around 40 cents a barrel above dated Brent, and 500,000 barrels of Abu Dhabi's Murban crude from BP at a discount of $1.90 a barrel to dated Brent.
IOC also issued a fresh tender to buy sweet crude for end-March and April loadings. Offers are due on Wednesday and Thursday, and should be valid until Friday.