SINGAPORE, July 18 (Reuters) - Australian and Malaysian cargoes start to trade in the Asia-Pacific crude market on Wednesday, with more Kimanis cargoes available in September.
Robust demand from splitters underpinned condensate values in Asia. Besides Pertamina, China's Fuhaichuang, formerly known as Dragon Aromatics, is also seeking condensate, traders said. The Chinese company may have bought Alba and Pluto condensate, they said.
AUSTRALIA: Woodside and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) have sold their September-loading North West Shelf (NWS) condensate cargoes, while BP's cargo was likely to be sold into Pertamina's tender, traders said.
Woodside has also sold its Pluto condensate to a trader, they said. Prices were not immediately known.
For light grades, BHP sold a Cossack cargo loading on Sept. 8-12 to Trafigura at 50-60 cents a barrel above dated Brent, down from a premium of $1 in the previous month. Oil Search has likely sold its two Kutubu cargoes to BP (LON:BP) and Trafigura at similar premiums to Cossack, traders said.
For heavy grades, Mitsui has sold its partial Enfield cargo at a premium of just above $2 a barrel to dated Brent to a trader. Quadrant Energy is offering its partial Van Gogh cargo at a premium of more than $1 a barrel to dated Brent.
MALAYSIA: Malaysia will export 11 cargoes of Kimanis crude in September, up from nine cargoes in the previous month, trade sources said.
It was not immediately clear how many cargoes will be available for spot sales.
ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) has sold one of its two cargoes via a tender at a discount of about 10 cents to the grade's official selling price, the sources said.
Last month, the U.S. oil company sold a cargo to an oil major at $3.70-$3.80 a barrel above dated Brent. CRU/TENDA
Seller
Grade
Volume (KB) Loading date Shell (LON:RDSa)
Kimanis 600
Sept. 1-5 Petronas
Kimanis 600
Sept. 4-8 Petronas
Kimanis 600
Sept. 7-11 ConocoPhillips Kimanis 600
Sept. 10-14 Shell
Kimanis 600
Sept. 13-17 Petronas
Kimanis 600
Sept. 16-20 PetroBrunei
Kimanis 600
Sept. 18-22 Petronas
Kimanis 600
Sept. 21-25 ConocoPhillips Kimanis 600
Sept. 24-28 Shell
Kimanis 600
Sept. 26-30 Petronas
Kimanis 600
Sept. 30-Oct 4
BRENT-DUBAI EFS
Brent crude's premium to Dubai swaps DUB-EFS-1M has slipped to $2 a barrel, the lowest since early October last year, Reuters data showed.
The narrowing of the price spread between the two benchmarks has opened the arbitrage for Atlantic Basin crude grades to Asia and means Dubai-linked grades are relatively more expensive for Asian buyers, traders said.
TENDERS
PTT issued its monthly tender to buy crude for delivery between Sept. 15 and Oct. 10 on behalf of IRPC. The tender will close on Thursday.
REFINERY
South Korean refiner S-Oil started exporting low-sulphur straight run fuel oil (SRFO) in June after experiencing technical issues with the ramp-up of the new residue fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) unit at its 669,000-barrel per day plant in Ulsan, trade sources said. National Oil Corp (NOC) said on Tuesday it had declared force majeure on exports from the Zawiya oil terminal as production at the Sharara oilfield dropped to 125,000 barrels per day (bpd). police wielded batons and rubber hoses to disperse about 250 protesters gathered at the main entrance to the Zubair oilfield near Basra on Tuesday as unrest across southern cities over poor basic services gathered pace. of Venezuela's four crude upgraders are scheduled to undergo previously delayed maintenance in the next few weeks, according to three sources close to the facilities, further reducing state-run PDVSA's exports of upgraded crude. Tullow Oil (LON:TLW) said on Tuesday that it might be forced to shut down operations at its northern Kenyan oilfields if it cannot reach a deal to end protests by the local community that have disrupted activities to truck oil from the area. 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