SINGAPORE: Trade in the Asia-Pacific crude market was muted on Monday with traders awaiting January-loading programmes to assess supplies.
Demand from Chinese independent refineries may recover this month as they seek cargoes for January delivery while waiting for Beijing to issue 2018 import quotas, traders said. Shandong Wonfull Petrochemical will close on Tuesday a tender seeking crude for January delivery.
MALAYSIA: More details emerged for December-loading cargoes from Malaysia. Petronas sold its Miri cargo via a tender to Vitol at a premium of about $4.50 a barrel above dated Brent.
The producer offered a cargo of Cendor for lifting in December at a premium above $5 a barrel, but the cargo was likely unsold as buyers baulked at the high premium.
It remained unclear if Petronas has sold a Penara cargo loading in December.
BRENT-DUBAI EFS
Brent’s premium to Dubai swaps was at $2.56 per barrel, up 5 cents for January.
REFINERY
Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp plans to shut a crude oil unit and several secondary units for maintenance at its 540,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Mailiao refinery in 2018, a company spokesman said.
Japan’s Toa Oil Co said on Monday it was starting up its fire-hit 70,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) crude distillation unit (CDU) at its Keihin refinery in eastern Japan.
Source: Brecorder.com
