The contango spreads for benchmark Dubai crude futures were rangebound in mid-morning trade Asia Sept. 4, with little activity seen as the Middle East market awaits the release of new monthly official selling prices.
The October/November spread was pegged at a contango of 22 cents/b at 11 am in Singapore (0300 GMT), stable from the 4:30 pm (0830 GMT) Asian market close on Sept. 3, S&P Global Platts data showed.
The November/December spread was pegged at a contango of 26 cents/b, unchanged from the previous Asian close.
The sour crude complex is expected to remain rangebound until Middle Eastern producers release their October OSPs.
Meanwhile, the cash Dubai/futures spread eased to minus 40.50 cents/b Sept. 3 from minus 30 cents/b Sept. 1, but remained well above the minus 62 cents/b averaged in August, data showed.
Market differentials were likely to remain under pressure unless there were cuts to the new official selling prices from the month before, as demand fundamentals remained weak, market sources said.
"The market is not going to recover from discounts if the new OSPs don't go down," a sour crude trader said.
Chinese end-user demand may not improve in September as the average margin for independent refineries has fallen to breakeven levels, Platts reported earlier.
