SINGAPORE, July 16 (Reuters) - The Asia-Pacific crude market
was weak on Monday, with the sale of Australian and Sudanese
sweet grades at weaker differentials due to ample supply and a
slowdown in Japanese demand.
* TENDERS
- Thai refiner and petrochemical firm IRPC has bought about
600,000 barrels of Cossack crude from Australian producer
Woodside for early-September delivery, trade sources said.
IRPC bought the cargo at a small discount to dated Brent on
a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis, they said. This would be
equivalent to a discount below $1.50 a barrel to dated Brent on
a free-on-board (FOB) basis, lower than the bid/offer levels for
Cossack on the Platts window a couple of weeks ago.
Woodside may be supplying to IRPC a cargo that loaded this
month, one source said.
- State-owned China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) has sold
two cargoes of Sudanese crude via tenders months after fighting
erupted between Sudan and South Sudan early this year, halting
oil exports, trade sources said.
The cargoes were from CNPC's equity share of Sudanese oil
production and were likely to have been drawn from storage
instead of from a resumption in production in the countries,
they said.
CNPC sold a cargo each of Nile Blend and Dar Blend at
single-digit discounts to Indonesia Crude Price (ICP) Minas and
dated Brent, respectively, as the cargoes were prompt and as
excess supply weighed on the market, the sources said.
The 1 million barrel Nile Blend cargo for July 31-Aug. 2
loading was sold to European trader Vitol, while a 520,000
barrel cargo of Dar Blend for July 18-20 loading was sold to
Malaysia's Petronas, they said. The deals could not be verified.
A trader said the discount for Nile Blend could be as low as
$6-$7 a barrel as the tender attracted only three bids while
demand has slowed in Asia.
* MARKET NEWS
- The presidents of Sudan and South Sudan on Saturday held
their first talks since their countries came close to war in
April, raising hopes for a negotiated settlement of oil and
border disputes before a U.N. Security Council deadline on Aug.
2.
- Iran could prevent even "a single drop of oil" passing
through the Strait of Hormuz if its security is threatened, a
naval chief said on Saturday, as tensions simmer over Tehran's
nuclear programme.
