SINGAPORE, March 30 (Reuters) - Asia-Pacific crude market
held firm on Friday, supported by a recovery in refining
margins.
* TRADES
- More details emerged for condensate deals. BHP sold its
May North West Shelf (NWS) condensate cargo at $3.80-$3.90 a
barrel below dated Brent, likely to Unipec. The discount was at
the lower end of the $2.60-$4 a barrel range fetched for April
cargoes.
- Inpex sold its May Bayu Undan condensate cargo to Shell
under a term agreement at a discount between $4.70 and $4.80 a
barrel to dated Brent.
- Total has sold 600,000 barrels of Gabon Rabi Light to JX
Nippon for May 5-6 loading, likely at $2-$2.10 a barrel above
dated Brent, reflecting healthy appetite for direct-burning
grades in Japan. Two more Rabi Light cargoes are still available
for May.
A spike in Japanese electricity demand this summer risks
sending Asian low-sulphur crude and fuel oil prices to new
highs, as the world's No. 3 economy scrambles to buy oil for its
power plants, to plug an energy gap left by a crippled nuclear
sector.
* TENDERS
- Russia's top oil producer Rosneft sold two cargoes of ESPO
Blend crude for May-June loading at higher premiums than the
previous month on firm demand in Asia, traders said.
The cargoes for loading on May 19-22 and May 31-June 2 were
sold to unknown buyers at premiums between $4 and $4.50 a barrel
to Dubai quotes, they said. This could not be verified.
- India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) sold a second
cargo of Russian Sokol crude for May loading at a premium
similar to the previous tender, traders said.
The 700,000-barrel cargo, loading on May 26-29, was sold to
European trader Petraco at a premium of $7.00-$7.40 a barrel to
Oman/Dubai quotes, they said. Petraco promptly re-offered the
cargo at a premium of about $7.50 a barrel.
* MARKET NEWS
- India's annual crude imports from Iran could plunge by
about a quarter in 2012/13, according to Reuters' calculations,
as Essar Oil ESRO.NS joins its state-run refinery peers in
cutting purchases from the sanctions-hit country.
- India's state-run Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals
Ltd MRPL.NS has raised capacity of its southern India coastal
refinery by about 27 percent to 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), a
company source said.
- China's refined oil product inventories stood at 16.21
million tonnes at the end of February, the highest in a year and
enough to last 22 days at the current demand rate, the China
Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation (CPCIF) said.
CRUDE Price Prev Change
MAY Brent 122.90 124.53 -1.63
MAY Brent/Dubai EFS DUB-EFS-1M 4.19 4.20 -0.01
PRODUCT CRACKS Price Prev Change
APRIL gasoil crack 15.65 15.45 0.20
APRIL fuel oil crack -6.10 -6.33 0.23
MAY naphtha crack -7.18 -7.45 0.27
COMPLEX REFINERY MARGINS
Today 7.72
Last 5 days 5.55
Last 365 days 7.72
