SINGAPORE: Thai demand supported the Asia-Pacific crude market after state-owned PTT bought regional grades in its monthly import tender, traders said.
Thailand's PTT bought a total of 1 million barrels or more including Brunei's Seria Light and Malaysia's Kimanis in a tender for arrival at its Rayong plant in late-May and early-June, the traders said.
In addition, the company purchased two other regional grades, they said, but the details of the tender result were not available.
PTT normally buys between 600,000 and 1 million barrels of sweet crude in a monthly tender and has mostly bought regional grades in the last six months.
For May loading of Vietnamese grades, PV Oil sold a cargo each of Bunga Orkid and Bunga Kekwa to BP at around $3 a barrel above dated Brent, traders said.
The 300,000-barrel cargoes are due to load May 11-17 and May 21-27, respectively.
Steady inflows of North Sea crude weighed on the market for regional grades. The VLCC New Joviality loaded last week at Hound Point headed for Ulsan, South Korea. The VLCC Alsace was last seen moored at Hound Point and was expected to head to Asia.
Scheduled maintenance work at Hound Point's jetty in May could encourage traders to try to get VLCC away this month.
The VLCCs Al Salmi and Ellinis are expected to arrive in South Korea with North Sea crude on April 30 and May 31, respectively, according to Reuters data.
Brent-Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS), or Brent's premium to Dubai swaps, narrowed 9 cents to $1.28 a barrel.
MARKET NEWS
Saudi Arabia, the world's top crude exporter, raised prices for all the grades it will sell to Asia in May, increasing levels for the second straight month as robust refining margins supported demand in the region.
Russia's Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of top global gas producer Gazprom, signed an agreement on Monday to purchase 49 percent of the operator of Vietnam's Dung Quat refinery, the country's sole oil processing facility.
Faced with plummeting oil prices and sanctions restricting their access to Western finance, Russian oil companies have asked the government for permission to delay a vast oil refinery modernization programme.
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