Thursday, 26 March 2015 17:44
SINGAPORE: Spot premiums for Vietnamese grades rose in the Asia-Pacific crude market on tighter supply as several cargoes had been diverted to meet domestic demand.
PV Oil awarded a tender to sell 600,000 barrels of Bach Ho crude to Glencore at $ 1.30-$ 1.50 a barrel above dated Brent for May 15-21 loading, traders said, up from a premium of about $ 1 in a previous trade for this grade.
PV Oil has also sold two 300,000-barrel Ruby crude cargoes to its subsidiary in Singapore and Japanese refiner Taiyo Oil at about $ 2 a barrel above dated Brent, up about 50 cents from the previous month. These cargoes will load on May 5-12 and 18-25. The deals could not be independently verified.
For Russian grades, exports from the Pacific port of Kozmino will hold steady at 27 cargoes in May, same as the record level reached in April, a preliminary loading programme obtained by Reuters showed.
Record supply of the Russian grade to Asia has depressed its spot premium by about $ 1 to Dubai quotes for cargoes loading in May from the previous month, traders said.
Surgutneftegaz has sold three cargoes via a tender at $ 1.85-$ 2.30 a barrel above Dubai quotes to Petro-Diamond, Glencore and Itochu for May 10-14, 14-18 and 19-23 loading. It sold another two cargoes for May 23-26 and 27-30 via a tender that closed late on Wednesday at $ 2.30-$ 2.50 a barrel, a trader said, but the buyers were not immediately known.
Rosneft offered three ESPO cargoes for loading on May 8-11, 25-28 and May 29-June 1 in a tender to close on March 26 with bids valid until March 31.
Another item on traders’ radar is Indonesia’s monthly tender. Pertamina closed on Thursday a tender to buy up to 3.45 million barrels of sweet crude for June delivery. Offers will remain valid until March 30.
Brent-Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS), or Brent’s premium to Dubai swaps, was $ 1.46 for May, up 26 cents.
MARKET NEWS
Saudi Arabia and Gulf region allies launched military operations including air strikes in Yemen on Thursday, officials said, to counter Iran-allied forces besieging the southern city of Aden where the U.S.-backed Yemeni president had taken refuge.
Iraq supports OPEC’s policy of defending the group’s market share by keeping oil production steady, an Iraqi parliamentary oil official said on Wednesday, despite pressure on the Arab state’s budget.
Iran is storing at least 30 million barrels of oil on its fleet of supertankers as Western sanctions continue to keep a lid on sales, tanker market sources say.
Vietnam’s state oil and gas group PetroVietnam (PVN) is considering selling its 40 percent stake in a joint venture with Venezuelan counterpart Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), according to two sources close to the exploration project.
Copyright Reuters, 2015
