SINGAPORE: The Asia-Pacific crude market held steady on Tuesday as traders awaited the results of Vietnamese tenders to assess demand and prices for November-loading cargoes.
PV Oil is due to award several tenders in the next couple of days, including Su Tu Den, Rang Dong and Chim Sao. It remained to be seen whether premiums had bottomed out or could fall further under the weight of excess supply in the Atlantic Basin as the arbitrage to Asia remained wide open.
"It should improve because of winter but there are too many fishes in the ocean," a crude oil seller said, referring to ample supply.
"Customers are saying our tanks are full and we will only look if there's cheap oil."
Brent-Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS), or Brent's premium to Dubai swaps, edged up 2 cents at $1.18 a barrel.
Four North West Shelf (NWS) condensate cargoes will load in November. BP, BHP, Mitsui and Woodside will load a cargo each on Nov. 4-8, 16-20, 26-30 and Nov. 29 to Dec. 2, respectively.
For Russian grades, Sakhalin Energy issued its monthly tender offering 730,000 barrels of Vityaz for Nov. 11-18 loading. The tender will close on Thursday with bids valid until Friday.
Rosneft did not award a tender offering ESPO for loading on Oct. 12-13 as it received only one low bid at 90 cents a barrel above Dubai quotes, traders said. The Russian producer is likely to reissue the tender.
Surgutneftegas will close a tender later on Tuesday to sell an ESPO loading on Oct. 31-Nov. 5.
Fourth-quarter ESPO crude exports from the Pacific port of Kozmino were expected to edge down to 6.10 million tonnes from 6.15 million tonnes, traders said on Monday, citing a quarterly loading schedule.
* MARKET NEWS
Thailand's top oil and gas explorer PTT Exploration and Production Pcl plans to spend $3.3 billion on projects in Myanmar during 2014-2018 in addition to the $4 billion that it has already invested.
Crude oil tanker earnings on the major Middle East route fell to their lowest in nearly three months as a slowdown in business in recent days battered rate sentiment.
Thai energy company PTT has joined with Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest oil producer, to submit a proposal to the Vietnamese government to build a $22 billion refinery and petrochemical complex in Vietnam, a senior PTT official said.
Investors are losing interest in Brazil's oil industry as the country's energy policies raise costs, reduce efficiency and increase risk, Brazil's oil industry association, the IBP, said.
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