SINGAPORE, Sept 13 (Reuters) - The Asia-Pacific crude oil market remained steady on Thursday with Inpex Corp offering the first condensate export cargo from its Ichthys project in Australia via a tender, trade sources said.
CONDENSATE
* Inpex Corp, Japan's top explorer, has offered the first condensate export cargo from its Ichthys project in Australia, a source with knowledge of the matter said, in a sign that the plant is moving into commercial production. offered a 350,000-barrel cargo of Ichthys condensate to load on Sept. 28-Oct. 8 in a tender that will close later on Thursday, he added.
* Two tankers carrying Iranian condensate, a type of ultra-light oil, have been floating off the United Arab Emirates for about a month as demand for the oil fell ahead of U.S. sanctions. tankers, carrying about 2.4 million barrels of South Pars condensate combined, have been floating off the UAE since August after South Korea halted imports from Iran while China's demand dropped during summer, according to several industry sources and shipping data.
MALAYSIA
* A supertanker carrying the first crude oil cargo for a refinery joint-venture project between Petronas and Saudi Aramco is expected to reach Malaysia by end-September, according to trade sources and data from Thomson Reuters Oil Research and Forecast. About 10 Kimanis crude oil cargoes are likely to load in November, trade sources said, though details of the loading dates were not immediately available.
INDONESIA
* Indonesia's Pertamina is seeking two cargoes of 600,000 barrels each of sweet crude for delivery into Balongan in November in a tender that closes on Sept. 14 and valid until Sept. 18. CRU/TENDA
BRENT-DUBAI EFS
*Brent's premium to Dubai swaps DUB-EFS-1M was at $3.38 per barrel for November, down 5 cents from the previous session.
NEWS
* Spot premiums for November-loading Abu Dhabi Murban crude oil have hit the highest in 2018 so far on robust demand in Asia, trade sources said on Thursday. U.S. shale producers are locking in prices for their production as much as three years into the future in a sign that strong domestic crude pricing is nearing a peak, according to market sources familiar with money flows. OPEC on Wednesday further trimmed its forecast for 2019 global oil demand growth and said the risk to the economic outlook was skewed to the downside, adding a new challenge to the group's efforts to support the market next year. Indian buying of West African oil will slow this month, as U.s. grades and other rivals displace the likes of Nigerian light sweet crude, while Chinese demand for Angolan oil is expected to hold steady. U.S. crude oil inventories fell more than expected last week to below 400 million barrels, while gasoline and distillate inventories rose as refiners ramped up production, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Libya's state oil firm NOC said on Wednesday that it continued to manage its operations normally throughout the country, without loss of production, after a shooting attack on its Tripoli headquarters. crude prices, oil product cracks and refining margins, please click on the RICs below.
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Dubai
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Brent/Dubai EFS
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PRODUCT CRACKS
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Gasoil crack
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Naphtha crack
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Complex refining margins REF/MARGIN1