Dubai Mercantile Exchange hosted its latest auction on Monday, January 29, 2018, on behalf of Iraq’s National Oil Company, SOMO.

The 2-million barrel cargo of Basrah Light was awarded at a premium of $0.42 per barrel over the March 2018 Basrah Light Official Selling Price (OSP).  25 companies have participated in the auction with 16 bids received during the two-minute auction.

In January 2018, DME auctioned a total of 6 million barrels for 3 different crude oil grades; including Oman Blend, Basrah Light, and Basrah Heavy. This generated premiums of nearly  $2 million.

DME Auction was launched in 2016 in a bid to provide a transparent spot commodity auction system for the first time in the Middle East.