RTRS:Asia-Pacific Crude-Poor margins, lower Japan demand weighs
SINGAPORE, March 19 (Reuters) - Asia-Pacific crude could
come under pressure this week on poor refining margins while
Japan could slow down purchases of low sulphur oil on lower
power consumption in spring.
Regional cargoes for May could trade lower after hitting
record levels in April on supply disruption from Australia,
South Sudan and strong Japan demand.
A powerful tropical cyclone has passed without disrupting
production at the Pyrenees and Van Gogh fields although the
market is still waiting for loading dates to be finalised before
starting May trade.
Woodside said on Monday it had restarted production at its
Enfield oil field off the coast of northwest Australia after the
passage of Cyclone Lua over the weekend after shutting six
fields on Wednesday. Cossack and Vincent remained
shut.
Apache Corp said on Monday it was making preparations to
restart its Stag oil.
Two different premiums emerged for Ruby crude in May, a sign
that certain refiners could be willing to pay more for regional
grades as natural declines and strong demand from Japan reduced
supply, traders said.
* TENDERS
- TNK-BP sold two cargoes of Russian ESPO crude for loading
in April at lower premiums than its previous tender as seasonal
refinery maintenance and poor middle distillates cracks weigh on
the grade, traders said.
TNK-BP sold a 730,000-barrel cargo for loading on April
14-18 to Shell at between $3.20 and $3.30 a barrel above Dubai
quotes, the lowest premium in at least a year, they said.
Another cargo to be loaded on April 23-27 was sold to
Sinochem at a premium of about $4.10 a barrel, the sources said.
The difference in premiums for the two cargoes was likely to
reflect a wide backwardation in prompt intermonth Dubai spreads,
traders said, where the crude's value is higher in the front
month than the subsequent month.
- Vietnam's PV Oil sold two 250,000-barrel cargoes of Ruby
crude for May at two different premiums, traders said.
A May 3-9 cargo was sold to Petrobras at a premium of near
$3 a barrel to the Minas formula, while SK Energy bought a May
18-24 cargo at about $4.50 a barrel, signaling a strong need for
the Vietnamese grade from the South Korean refiner, the traders
said.
- PV Oil has offered 250,000 barrels of Song Doc crude for
May 1-6 loading via a tender, a trader said.
The Song Doc tender closes on March 20, with bids valid
until later in the day, the trader said.
- India's ONGC offered 700,000 barrels of Sokol crude for
May 16-19 loading. The tender will close on March 21 with bids
valid until a day later.
* MARKET NEWS
- Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura port, a major oil operations
centre for Saudi Aramco, has reopened but loading operations
were slow due to bad weather, a port agent said.
- China may raise gasoline and diesel retail prices from
Tuesday, consultancy C1 Energy said in a report on its website.
- Chugoku Electric Power Co said it resumed power generation
from the 350-megawatt oil-fired No.1 unit at its Tamashima power
plant in western Japan on Monday after unplanned repair work.
CRUDE Price Prev Change
MAY Brent 125.19 123.42 1.77
MAY Brent/Dubai EFS 3.89 3.75 0.14
DUB-EFS-1M
