Dubai crude trade to hit record volume on Chinaoil buys

Dubai crude trade heated up on the Platts window on Wednesday as Chinaoil stepped up purchases, snapping up 90 partials in what is possibly the highest daily trade volume ever, traders said.

Wednesday's trades led to the delivery of five physical cargoes, bringing Chinaoil's total purchase to 13 cargoes, or 6.5 million barrels, in five sessions this month, they said.

"It's only the 8th of the month and he has already taken 13 cargoes," a trader with a Western firm said, referring to Chinaoil's trader Zhang Yufeng who takes charge of Middle East crude trading.

Chinaoil is the trading arm of state-owned PetroChina .

In Wednesday's trade, Mercuria and Royal Dutch Shell  will deliver an Upper Zakum crude cargo each while Unipec, the trading arm of Asia's largest refiner Sinopec, will deliver two Oman crude cargoes, traders said. BP will deliver a Dubai crude cargo, they said.

Oil pricing agency Platts' spokesman could not immediately comment.

Thomson Reuters, parent of Reuters news, competes with Platts in providing news and information to the oil market.

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