SINGAPORE: Indonesia's Pertamina bought sweet crude from the Atlantic Basin instead of that produced in the Asia-Pacific despite supply disruptions in Nigeria, traders said on Monday.
The refiner typically buys Qua Iboe and Escravos crude from Nigeria but avoided these grades in its latest tender after militant attacks on the African producer's oil infrastructure disrupted supplies.
Pertamina bought 600,000 barrels each of Saharan Blend and Girassol crude for delivery in August and is expected to issue another tender to buy a third cargo, they said. Details on prices and sellers were not immediately known.
Pertamina did not take up a Kutubu crude offer at a premium of about $2.50 a barrel to dated Brent.
In Russia, there will be only four Sokol cargoes loading in August, said a trader, citing a preliminary loading programme.
SODECO, Rosneft, ONGC and ExxonMobil were allocated a cargo each loading on Aug. 1, 4, 27 and 30, he said.
Brent's premium to Dubai swaps, or Brent-Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS), was at $3.77 a barrel for August, up 14 cents from the previous session.
*REFINERY
Energy-hungry India is ready to revive projects including the Nagarjuna Oil Refinery in the south of the country to boost its oil sector, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan told a local television channel on Monday.
*MARKET NEWS
Brent crude pushed above $50 while gold and copper touched multi-week highs on Monday, as commodities rallied after a dismal US jobs report hit the dollar and crushed expectations for a near-term hike in US interest rates.
More than 20 European and Asian-owned supertankers are shipping Iranian crude oil, data seen by Reuters shows, allowing Tehran to ramp up exports much faster than market analysts had expected following the lifting of Western sanctions in January.
OPEC's strategy of letting the oil market balance itself is working as investment in the industry is falling and any recovery will take time to bring new supplies, a senior Iraqi oil official said.
The Niger Delta Avengers militant group has claimed responsibility for three new attacks on Nigeria's oil infrastructure, promising to cut production to zero.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.