The November contract of the Dubai benchmark traded at the start of this week at a discount of about $2 per barrel to the December contract, traders and brokers told Bloomberg — the first time the Dubai curve has slipped into contango since July.

Contango, a structure in which contracts dated further out are worth more than prompt ones, indicates that concern about an immediate lack of crude has eased. Physical flows had been rising for two months, with Gulf producers accelerating ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman once tankers clear Hormuz. Rising Middle East supply has weakened both Dubai and Murban prices and increased buying from Asian refiners, especially in India, which preferred additional Middle Eastern cargoes to more expensive Russian barrels with higher freight costs.