Totsa, the trading arm of French major TotalEnergies, has been the sole buyer of Middle East crude during the Platts window since the start of the month, snapping up a total of 69 Oman and Murban crude cargoes so far, or 34.5 million barrels, trade data showed.
The company could not be immediately reached for comment outside office hours. It had previously declined to comment on its Dubai trades.
Dubai’s premium to swaps spiked to an all-time high of about $65 a barrel last week as the amount of crude available for trading fell after SP Global Platts excluded three of the five crude grades in anticipation of a prolonged disruption in shipping via the Strait of Hormuz.
The price spike has caused Asian refiners to shun spot Middle East crude purchases and instead buy oil from Europe, Africa and the Americas.
(Reporting by Florence Tan and Siyi Liu; Editing by Michael Perry and Shri Navaratnam)