SINGAPORE, April 18 (Reuters) - The Asia-Pacific crude market is expected to trade higher for June on improving margins for middle distillates and fewer cargoes expected to load from Malaysia and Australia, trade sources said.
MALAYSIA
* The June-loading program for Malaysia's Kimanis crude oil cargoes shows that Petronas will export four cargoes between June 5 and June 9, June 14-18, June 19-23 and June 27-July 1, traders said.
Shell (LON:RDSa) will load two cargoes over June 11-15 and June 24-28, while ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) will load two cargoes over June 8-12 and June 22-26, they said.
Petroleum Brunei will export a cargo over June 3-7 and Pertamina will export one over June 16-20, they added.
CONDENSATE
* China's Fuhaichuang, formerly known as Dragon Aromatics, has bought two cargoes of condensate to be delivered in June as it prepares to restart its petrochemical complex in the eastern province of Fujian, three trade sources said. company bought 650,000 barrels of Australian Pluto condensate from an oil major and about 600,000 barrels of Equatorial Guinea's Alba condensate from Glencore (LON:GLEN), they said.
Fuhaichuang is waiting for government approval before it restarts its plants in Zhangzhou, on the east coast of China, which include a 90,000-barrels-per-day (bpd) condensate splitter, a 3.2-million-tonnes-per-year (tpy) hydrocracker and two 800,000-tpy paraxylene plants.
RUSSIA
* Russian Sokol crude oil premiums this week hit their highest in more than two years after at least two June-loading cargoes were sold at $5.70-$5.80 a barrel above Dubai quotes on the back of robust demand in Asia, trade sources said. cargoes were sold by Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM) XOM.N and SODECO, they said, although buyers were not immediately known.
Spot premiums are 50 cents-60 cents per barrel higher than the previous month.
BRENT-DUBAI EFS
* Brent's premium to Dubai swaps DUB-EFS-1M was at $4.04 per barrel, down 6 cents for June.
NEWS
* An Indian push to connect more cities via airports as an expanding middle class increasingly takes to the skies is set to help propel the country's demand for jet fuel to record highs this year. rapid growth in appetite for aviation fuel means the country's refiners are far less likely to send cargoes abroad, tightening markets from Asia to Europe.
* The city of Yanan, a major wind power base in northwest China's Shaanxi province, has introduced a lottery system to decide which wind projects will go ahead this year, a sign that grid constraints are forcing local governments to restrict capacity. The long-delayed Browse gas project off Western Australia has gained key support, with partners in the North West Shelf liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant aiming to agree on a tariff by end-June to handle Browse gas, Woodside Petroleum's WPL.AX chief executive said on Wednesday. China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) has sold 90,000 tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for delivery in July and November in its first such auction on the Shanghai Petroleum and Gas Exchange on Wednesday, an official at the exchange said. 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