Supply crunch pushes Middle East oil to the top of the price charts

That put Dubai's premium to swaps at $56.01 a barrel on Monday, accounting for about a third of the crude's value and up from an average of 90 cents in February, data from Reuters showed.

Similarly, Oman crude futures hit a record of $147.79 a barrel, setting their premium to Dubai swaps at $50.57 a barrel, far above February's 75 cents average.

Dubai prices are distorted given its wide price gap with Murban futures which settled at $111.76 a barrel on Monday, three trade sources said. Middle East crude exports to Asia fell to 11.665 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, down from nearly 19 million bpd in February and about 32 per cent lower than March 2025 levels, as the war halts shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, data from analytics firm Kpler showed.

Several Asian refiners have reduced operating rates.