Aug 5 (Reuters) - Physically traded domestic U.S. crudes were little changed on Monday, dealers said, as the spread between U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude and Brent traded range bound.
The WTI/Brent spread to settle at minus $4.12 a barrel, after touching its widest since July 8 on Friday. A spread makes U.S. crude less attractive to foreign buyers.
WTI Midland WTC-WTM weakened 5 cents, while WTI at East Houston WTC-MEH, also known as MEH, was unchanged. Mars strengthened 5 cents.
U.S. crude stockpiles were expected to have risen by 900,000 barrels last week, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday. Distillate stocks also rose, while gasoline inventories likely drew down.
China's crude oil imports in June were down 11% from a high base a year earlier, official customs data showed on Friday, as independent refiners continued to curb production due to weak profit margins and as fuel demand remained tepid.
Meanwhile, top oil exporter Saudi Arabia raised the price for the flagship Arab light crude it sells to Asia in September for the first time in three months, while cutting prices to the other regions.
While a hike in prices could boost Asian buying of US oil, the raise was less-than-expected.
In refining , U.S. oil refiners are expected to have about 525,000 barrels per day (bpd) of capacity offline in the week ending Aug. 9, increasing available refining capacity by 142,000 bpd, research company IIR Energy said.
* Light Louisiana Sweet WTC-LLS for September delivery gained 25 cents at a midpoint of a $2.15 premium and was seen bid and offered between a $1.80 and $2.50 a barrel premium to U.S. crude futures CLc1
* Mars Sour WTC-MRS gained 5 cents at a midpoint of a 65-cent discount and was seen bid and offered between a 80-cent and 50-cent a barrel discount to U.S. crude futures CLc1
* WTI Midland WTC-WTM fell 5 cents at a midpoint of a 80-cent premium and was seen bid and offered between a 60-cent and $1.00 a barrel premium to U.S. crude futures CLc1
* West Texas Sour WTC-WTS fell 10 cents at a midpoint of a 5-cent premium and was seen bid and offered between a discount of 10 cents and 20-cent a barrel premium to U.S. crude futures CLc1
* WTI at East Houston WTC-MEH, also known as MEH, traded between a $1.00 and $1.50 a barrel premium to U.S. crude futures CLc1
* ICE Brent October futures LCOc1 fell 51 cents to settle at $76.3 a barrel
* WTI September crude CLc1 futures fell 58 cents to settle at $72.94 a barrel
* The Brent/WTI spread WTCLc1-LCOc1 10 cents to minus $4.22, after hitting a high of minus $4.08 and a low of minus $4.29.
(Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar in Houston
Editing by Marguerita Choy)
((Arathy.s@tr.com))