By: Reuters

The Biden administration on Friday announced sweeping sanctions targeting Russian producers and tankers, disrupting supply from the world's No. 2 producer and tightening ship availability.

That sparked a scramble among buyers in China and India, the world's top and third-largest importers, for alternative oil supplies and tankers.

In latest trades, QatarEnergy more than doubled its term price for al-Shaheen crude oil loading in March to $3.81 per barrel above Dubai quotes from the previous month, after awarding two cargoes to Totsa at premiums of $3.70-$3.80, trade sources said. Totsa is the trading arm of French major TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA)

The March term price is at its highest level since October 2022 for cargoes loading in December that year.

The deals came after premiums for Middle East benchmarks rallied this week to above $4 per barrel, with that of Oman and Dubai hitting the highest levels since November 2022.

"Buyers (are) bidding up to secure supply and avoid operations disruption," said LSEG analyst Anh Pham.

Indian Oil Corp (IOC.NS) the country's top refiner by capacity, issued its first sour crude tender since March 2022.