SINGAPORE: The Asia Pacific crude market was mixed on Monday with premium for Sakhalin blend crude loading in May slipping from its near two-year peak traded in the previous month, trade sources said. But middle-distillate rich Malaysian grade held steady.
MALAYSIA
Malaysia’s Petronas has offered 300,000 barrels of Bunga Orkid for April 21-27 loading in a tender that closes on Feb. 28, traders said.
Petronas last sold a March-loading Bunga Orkid cargo to Chevron at a premium of $3 to $3.30 a barrel to dated Brent, traders said.
Malaysia’s Petronas sold its April 6-12 loading Bunga Kekwa cargo at lower levels than its March cargo, an industry source said.
Petronas last sold a February-loading Bunga Kekwa cargo to Unipec at a premium of $3 to $3.50 a barrel to dated Brent.
Malaysia’s Petronas has also sold a March 24-26 loading Sepat cargo at “a firm level”, an industry source said, though details of the price and buyer were not immediately available.
Firm middle distillates margins, especially for jet fuel, is likely supporting premium for the grade, traders said.
RUSSIA
Russia’s Sakhalin Energy has sold four cargoes of Sakhalin blend crude for loading in May to companies including Unipec, JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp and SK Energy, traders said.
The cargoes were sold at a premium of between $3.80 a barrel and $4.20 a barrel to Dubai quotes, they added, though this could not immediately be confirmed.
This is down from the $5 a barrel premium achieved for April-loading cargoes.
NEWS
At least one company began evacuating non-essential personnel after a powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit Papua New Guinea’s energy-rich interior on Monday, causing landslides, damaging buildings and closing oil and gas operations.
ExxonMobil said it had shut its Hides gas conditioning plant and that it believed administration buildings, living quarters and a mess hall had been damaged. It also said it had suspended flights into the nearby Komo airfield until the runway could be surveyed.
PNG oil and gas explorer Oil Search said in a statement it had also shut production in the quake-affected area.
Vietnam’s second oil refinery, Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical, will be ready for start-up from Feb. 28, its parent firm Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, or PetroVietnam ,said on Monday.
State-run Saudi Aramco has agreed to supply China’s Huajin Chemical Industries Group Corp 12 million barrels of crude oil under an annual deal for 2018, up sharply from last year, three sources with knowledge of the deal said on Monday.
Saudi Arabia hopes OPEC and its allies will be able to relax production curbs next year and create a permanent framework to stabilise oil markets after the current supply cut deal ends this year, its oil minister said on Saturday.
The first very large crude carrier (VLCC) that loaded crude from the United States’ largest privately owned crude terminal, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), is on its way to China, Thomson Reuters Eikon shiptracking data showed on Monday.
US energy companies added one oil rig this week, the fifth weekly increase in a row, as oil prices hovered at two-week highs.
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Source: Brecorder.com
