SINGAPORE: The Asia-Pacific crude market held steady on Monday amid little activity, although high freight rates continued to provide support.
Spot differentials for February cargoes have mostly traded slightly higher than last month as low oil prices triggered some demand, with refiners preferring short-haul cargoes to arbitrage cargoes due to high freight rates.
The improvement comes even as profits from processing a barrel of crude have fallen this month. Complex refining margins in the Singapore hub have averaged just under $6 a barrel in the last two weeks compared with around $7.40 last month.
Brent-Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS), or Brent's premium to Dubai swaps, narrowed 5 cents to $1.86 a barrel.
Shell bought at least one cargo of Ruby crude in a tender by PV Oil, but details were unclear.
China National Petroleum Corp, or CNPC, has entered into an agreement with South Sudan to boost production at existing oilfields in the young African state, according to a report in a CNPC-run paper.
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Vietnam will grant a licence for a $22 billion refinery and petrochemical complex to be jointly developed by Thai energy company PTT Pcl and Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest oil producer, no later than February 2015, a Vietnamese government official said on Monday.
Japan's top oil refinery group JX Holdings said on Monday its wholly owned refining unit had signed a memorandum of understanding with Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex) for exclusive talks to buy a stake in the Vietnamese oil trading firm and build a refinery in southern Vietnam.
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