SINGAPORE, March 26 (Reuters) - The Asia-Pacific condensate market remained steady on Monday with Malaysia's Petronas selling a May-loading Muda condensate cargo at similar levels to previous month, trade sources said.
MALAYSIA
* Malaysia's Petronas has sold 300,000 barrels of Muda condensate to South Korea's SK Energy at a premium of between $2.40 and $2.60 a barrel to dated Brent, traders said on Monday.
This is similar to an April-loading cargo that the refiner sold to Thailand's PTT earlier, they added.
AUSTRALIA
* Australia's BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) and Woodside Petroleum likely sold their North West Shelf condensate cargoes for May-loading at a premium of $1 to $1.50 a barrel to dated Brent, traders said, though this could not be confirmed.
It was not immediately clear if Mitsui had sold its May 7-11 loading cargo.
Demand from traditional buyer of the condensate grade from Indonesia's Pertamina for its TPPI splitter has been down, putting pressure on differentials for the grade, traders said, though the reason for demand reduction was not immediately clear.
Woodside may also have sold a May-loading Pluto condensate cargo, though price details and buyer were not immediately known.
There is still a May-loading Wheatstone cargo that has not sold, a trader said, though this could not be confirmed with Woodside, which is marketing the cargo.
THAILAND
* Thailand's PTT may have bought Nigerian crude grade Akpo from Total for loading in May on behalf of IRPC, traders said, though this could not immediately be confirmed.
BRENT-DUBAI EFS
* Brent's premium to Dubai swaps DUB-EFS-1M was at $3.98 per barrel on Friday, up 10 cents for May.
NEWS
* Shanghai crude oil futures launched on Monday with mom-and-pop and institutional investors fuelling much higher turnover than many expected for China's new commodity benchmark that is aimed at dominating the Asian market. a sign the contract has lured overseas interest, global commodity trader and miner Glencore (LON:GLEN), and big merchants Trafigura and Freepoint Commodities were among the first to trade, although regulatory hurdles and unfamiliar rules may stymie broader take-up in the near term.
* Unipec, the trading arm of Asia's largest refiner Sinopec, has inked a deal with a western oil major to buy Middle East crude priced against the newly launched Shanghai crude futures contract < 0#ISC:>, a senior company official said on Monday. Kong-based Unipec Asia will buy the crude delivered to China for one year starting from September, said the source who declined to be named due to company policy. He declined to comment on the counterparty and the purchase volume.
* Russia kept its spot as the largest crude oil supplier to China in February, data showed on Friday, a role it held in January and for the past two years on an annual basis. supplied 5.052 million tonnes, or 1.32 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, up 17.8 percent from a year earlier, data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs showed.
* U.S. energy companies added oil rigs this week for a second week in a row, data showed on Friday, as drillers followed through on plans to boost spending, encouraged by crude prices rising toward their highest in nearly three years. crude prices, oil product cracks and refining margins, please click on the RICs below.
Brent
BRENTSGMc1
Dubai
DUBSGSWMc2
Brent/Dubai EFS
DUB-EFS-1M
PRODUCT CRACKS
Fuel oil crack
FO180SGCKMc1
Gasoil crack
GOSGCKMc1
Naphtha crack
NAFOBSGCKMc1
Complex refining margins REF/MARGIN1