SINGAPORE, Feb 10 (Reuters) - A stronger fuel oil market provided support for heavier grades in the Middle East crude market, traders said on Thursday, arresting some of the bearish implications of lower official selling prices for April. Although Asian fuel oil's recent bull run eased on Thursday, the residual product's structure remained largely backwardated for a second session. [ID:nL3E7DA0BX] Valuations for April Oman crude rebounded by 10 cents to a discount of about 20 cents to Dubai quotes from Wednesday, on expectations that the strength in fuel oil would boost demand for Middle East crude. * SUPPLIES - Saudi Arabia, the world's top crude exporter, will supply full contracted volumes of crude oil in March to at least seven Asian term buyers, steady from February, industry sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday. [ID:nL3E7DA0D5] - The Saudis will continue to supply more light grades than heavy ones to at least one Asian buyer next month, although the kingdom kept the overall March supply volumes steady. - Buyers in Asia, which have been leading a recovery in demand growth as the world struggles out of recession, have been receiving full volumes since January 2010. - The sources said Saudi Arabia made no changes to the operational tolerance in the supply allocations, meaning buyers have the option of asking for cargoes to be loaded with up to 10 percent more or less crude than contracted. * WINDOW TRADES - Morgan Stanley sold a 25,000-barrel partial cargo of Dubai crude to Mercuria at $97.60 a barrel, while the bank sold another partial of the same size to Hess at the same price. * DME OMAN ASSESSMENT - April Oman traded on the Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) was assessed at a discount of 15 cents a barrel to Dubai swap quotes at 0830 GMT, traders said, up by 5 cents from Wednesday. * EAST-WEST - The front-month Brent/Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS) for March rose 20 cents to $3.90 a barrel, after touching $4.85 in mid-January, the widest level since Sept. 2008. - For a chart of the Brent/Dubai EFS curve, click here: here * MARKET NEWS - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz is alive, an adviser to a senior member of the ruling family told Reuters on Thursday, denying rumours about his health that had triggered buying across financial markets. [ID:nLDE71919V] - Rising OPEC production and comfortable oil stocks in developed economies should limit a further spike in oil prices, even with demand hitting an all-time high this year, the West's energy watchdog said. [ID:nLDE7190Q5] - Asia's top refiner, Sinopec Corp, will raise crude oil throughput in February at its Gaoqiao refinery by more than 80 percent from January after extended maintenance, an industry source said. [ID:nTOE71905F] - Russia may increase its oil export duty in March to a new two-year high of $363-$364 per tonne, following suit after the global oil rally, according to Finance Ministry data and Reuters calculations. [ID:nLDE7190SK] * REFINERY MARGINS - Complex processing margins for Dubai in Singapore were around $5.38 per barrel, up from an average of the last five days of $7.00, Reuters data show. Over the last year, the average margin has been around $4.80 per barrel. * CRACK SPREADS - Fuel oil's February crack narrowed 4 cents to a discount of $7.91 a barrel to Dubai crude. - Gas oil's March crack rose 20 cents to a premium of $18.79 a barrel to Dubai crude. - Naphtha CFR Japan front-month crack was steady at a discount of $3.72 a barrel to Brent crude, down 2 cents. * OUTRIGHT PRICES - March ICE Brent LCOc1 was at $101.38 a barrel at 0830 GMT, up $1.01 from Wednesday. [O/R] (Reporting by Alejandro Barbajosa, Osamu Tsukimori and Florence Tan, editing by Anthony Barker)

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