SINGAPORE, Aug 30 (Reuters) - The Asia-Pacific crude oil market remained steady with most of the October-loading cargoes being sold, trade sources said. There may be at least two condensate cargoes still unsold from Australia, they added.
AUSTRALIA
* There is one North West Shelf condensate cargo for loading in October and possibly a Wheatstone condensate cargo still available, an industry source said.
Chevron (NYSE:CVX) last sold a September-loading cargo to a trader at a discount of about $1 to dated Brent, a second trader said. That cargo had then been resold to South Korea, sources had said earlier.
CHINA
* China's Fuhaichuang, formerly known as Dragon Aromatics, has bought an Australian Pluto condensate cargo to be delivered in November, trade sources said, though details on the seller were not immediately available.
The company had earlier bought a cargo for delivery in October, traders said.
Its back-to-back purchase could mean it is preparing to restart its petrochemical complex in the eastern province of Fujian, they said, though this could not be confirmed.
Fuhaichuang is waiting for government approval before it restarts its plants in Zhangzhou, on the east coast of China, after halting operations for three years. The re-start could happen in October, the sources said, though the company has delayed restart a few times. Malaysia's Petronas sold 350,000 barrels of Bertam crude for loading over Oct. 12 to 16 to Vitol, industry sources said. But price details were not immediately available.
BRENT-DUBAI EFS
* Brent's premium to Dubai swaps DUB-EFS-1M was at $2.41 a barrel for October, up 26 cents from the previous session. The widening EFS will likely slow arbitrage flow from the west into Asia, trade sources said.
NEWS
* OPEC will discuss in December whether producers can compensate for a sudden drop in Iranian oil supply after U.S sanctions against Tehran start in November, the head of Iraq's state-oil marketer SOMO, Alaa al-Yasiri, told Reuters on Wednesday. The closing of a dock at Venezuela's main oil export port could delay as much as 5 million barrels in crude deliveries to Russian company Rosneft, further complicating oil-for-loan agreements between state-run PDVSA and Rosneft, a source said on Wednesday and internal PDVSA documents showed. U.S. crude stocks fell more than forecast last week, while gasoline and distillate inventories dropped unexpectedly, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Malaysian state-owned energy firm Petroliam Nasional Berhad is looking to expand its core business portfolio and plans to pay the government a higher dividend than earlier promised, its chief executive said on Thursday. Global oil markets could tighten towards the end of this year due to strong demand and uncertainty of production in some oil producing nations, the head of the International Energy Agency said. U.S. oil producer Magnolia Oil & Gas Corp MGY.N aims to at least triple in market valuation in coming years as it develops shale acreage across eastern and southern Texas, Chief Executive Steve Chazen said on Wednesday. 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