VNEconomyNews.com - Strong Minas prices depressed Vietnamese Ruby crude on Tuesday while more tenders have been issued as Asia-Pacific sellers rushed to complete sales of March cargoes ahead of Lunar New Year holidays.
* TENDERS
- Vietnam's PV Oil sold two 250,000-barrel cargoes of Ruby crude to load in March via a tender at about $1 lower in premium than the previous month.
The cargoes to load on March 5-11 and 18-24 were sold to Petrobras and an oil major at premiums of around $6 a barrel to the Minas formula.
The Minas price references continue to rise this week as bids by Gazprom on Platts and RIM failed to attract offers.
- PV Oil sold two cargoes of Chim Sao crude for February loading at a record premium on lower supply and robust demand for the new distillates-rich grade in Asia, traders said.
Vietnam reduced Chim Sao exports by one cargo in February after bad weather disrupted supply and firm middle distillates cracks lift demand for the grade.
PV Oil sold one of the two cargoes at a new high of $7.50-$8.00 a barrel above dated Brent while the premium for the other parcel was between $7 and $7.50 a barrel, they said.
The cargoes, to load on Feb. 17-21 and Feb. 25-29, were sold to oil majors, likely Shell and BP, traders said.
PV Oil has also issued a tender to sell 850,000 barrels of Chim Sao crude to load in March. It offered two 300,000-barrel cargoes to load on March 7-11 and 18-22 and a 250,000-barrel parcel to be lifted on March 27-31. The tender will close on Jan. 18.
- Petronas issued tenders to sell Tapis, Labuan and Miri crude. It offered 600,000 barrels of Tapis for March 6-14, 600,000 barrels of Labuan for March 13-19 and 500,000 barrels of Miri to load on March 1-10. The tenders close on Jan. 18 with bids valid until 6 p.m. Malaysia time.
- Taiwanese refiner CPC Corp is seeking sweet crude for March loading in a tender that will close on Jan. 18 with bids valid until Jan. 19.
* PACIFIC CRUDE EXPORTS
- Sweet crude and condensate exports from Australia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor are likely to rise in March from the previous month although a cyclone season in the region may disrupt supply, traders said.
A total of 22-23 cargoes will be available for loading in March, up from the 20 cargoes seen in the previous month as the production period is longer while a cargo was rolled over, preliminary estimates show.
The loading schedule for Pyrenees may be delayed by 3-5 days as the offshore platform was shut for a few days due to the cyclone and an unspecified technical issue, traders said.
This could reduce the number of Pyrenees cargoes by one in March, the trader said, adding that sellers widened the laycan period to 16 days to accommodate potential supply issues during the cyclone season.
* EFS
- Front-month Brent/Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS) for March DUB-EFS-1M was unchanged from Monday at $2.95 a barrel.
* MARKET NEWS
- Indonesian state energy firm Pertamina plans to shut almost all units at its 125,000 barrels per day (bpd) Balongan refinery for 30-45 days from mid-March as part of a planned maintenance, five industry sources said.
- BP has sold a cargo of North Sea crude to troubled refiner Petroplus, trade sources said, as the oil giant mulls providing support to Petroplus to enable it continue operating and supplying BP's UK retail stations.
- Rates for dirty tankers on key Asian freight routes are expected to surge over the next week on rising shipping demand to transport Middle East crude ahead of China's New Year holiday, ship brokers said.
- Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, said on Monday it can pump more oil at a moment's notice, the day after Iran warned Gulf oil producers not to compensate for any disruption to Iranian output.
- A worsening of the euro zone debt crisis would reduce Europe's already slowing oil demand and could impact consumption in emerging economies, which are driving the increase in global fuel use, OPEC said.
* REFINERY MARGINS
- Simple gross refining margins for Dubai in Singapore were at $2.45 per barrel, up from an average of the last five days of $1.85, Reuters data show. Over the last year, the average margin has been about minus 83 cents per barrel.
* CRACK SPREADS
- Fuel oil's February crack narrowed 35 cents to a discount of $1.16 a barrel to Dubai crude.
- Gasoil's February crack rose 22 cents to a premium of $19.40 a barrel to Dubai crude.
- The naphtha CFR Japan front-month crack widened 11 cents to a discount of $7.84 a barrel to Brent.
* OUTRIGHT PRICES
- March ICE Brent was at $112.20 a barrel at 0830 GMT, up 84 cents from Monday. (Reuters)
