ADNOC raises Murban crude oil OSP for May, Upper Zakum unchanged

London (Quantum Commodity Intelligence) — Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. announced Thursday its Official Selling Prices for crude oil in May, increasing Murban and leaving Upper Zakum, Umm Lula and Das grades unchanged.

May-loading Murban, a light sweet grade, was set at Dubai +$1.40/b, up from Dubai +$1.05 in April. ADNOC's flagship medium sour crude, Upper Zakum, was left unchanged at Murban -$0.15/b, while Umm Lula was -$0.05 and Das $0.35/b, both unchanged against Murban.

Murban production capacity is around 1.7 million barrels per day and Upper Zakum around 700,000 b/d, making up the bulk of the UAE's crude output. 

May is the final month that ADNOC will use the medium sour Dubai benchmark as the underlying reference price for its OSPs.

From June all ADNOC crude will be priced against Murban, using a monthly average of the recently-launched ICE Futures Abu Dhabi (IFAD) Murban futures contract.

Murban will be at parity to the monthly IFAD average, while the other grades will be set at a differential to Murban.

At 0830 in Abu Dhabi (0430 GMT) Murban futures were little changed on the day at $61.68/b, around $1.25/b under June Brent futures.