Both benchmarks slipped in the October 13 Asian session. Brent settled at USD 105.297 per barrel, down USD 1.27 on the day, while WTI closed at USD 92.449, down USD 1.38. The deeper WTI drop widened the Brent–WTI spread back to USD 12.85 from the USD 11 handle seen last week.

A wider spread trims the delivered advantage of light sweet grades such as ESPO, Dubai and Oman against US Gulf heavy crude, yet arbitrage buyers care more about the absolute level. Brent's 1.2% retreat lowered the FOB cost of direct Middle East liftings, while Red Sea diversions still add a hard USD 1.8–2.3 per barrel freight premium.

The real margin squeeze comes from FX. USD/CNY printed 6.6969, up 0.0433, a mild RMB softening. Delivered duty-paid cost equals (FOB + freight) × (1 + 1% tariff) × (1 + 13% VAT) ÷ spot rate; a 0.04 move in the rate lifts the landed cost by roughly 0.6%. That shaves part of the feedstock economics for short-haul ESPO into Qingdao, though the swing is still inside the hedgeable band versus September's sharper RMB slide.

On the desk, 60% of November cargoes were forward-hedged at the open, leaving 40% to play a pre-holiday RMB rebound. Refiners front-loaded some December cracking feedstock on the Brent dip.