SINGAPORE: The Asia-Pacific crude market found some support after Thailand's PTT bought regional crude in a monthly tender rather than arbitrage grades.
PTT bought two 300,000-barrel cargoes of Malaysian grades Kikeh and Kidurong in a tender for delivery to its IRPC refinery in early February. The company also bought 650,000 barrels of Australian Cossack crude from BP in the same tender.
The Thai company has previously bought cargoes from Algeria and Azerbaijan for the IRPC refinery, but arbitrage inflows into the region have been limited by high freight rates.
PTT also bought regional grades in its tender last month.
Four January-loading cargoes of Malaysia's new Kimanis grade were sold at around $3.50 a barrel above dated Brent, a trader said. That is a discount of more than $1.50 a barrel to Labuan and Kikeh, which traders say are of similar quality to Kimanis.
Refiners are still hesitant to pay more for the new grade, in part because field operator Shell has yet to release a crude assay specifying the quality of the grade, a trader said.
Three cargoes of Australia's Northwest Shelf condensate (NWS) are due to load in February, according to a loading programme. Woodside will load a Feb. 6-10 cargo, Shell will load a Feb. 14-18 cargo, while a Feb. 22-26 cargo will be marketed by BP.
That is down from five cargoes due to load in January, including one cross-month cargo at the end of the month.
PV Oil, the trading arm of PetroVietnam, offered two 300,000-barrel cargoes of Chim Sao crude for loading Feb. 11-15 and Feb. 22-26. The tender closes Dec. 12 with bids valid until Dec. 17.
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