Asia-Pacific Crude-Papua New Guinea light crude exports to fall in January

SINGAPORE: The Asia-Pacific crude market held steady on Monday as loading programmes from Australia and Papua New Guinea emerged.

There is no Cossack cargo scheduled to be exported in January, while there is only one Kutubu cargo to load around Jan. 20, traders said.

Still, the drop in light crude supplies may be offset by Ichthys condensate. Inpex has sold two cargoes of Ichthys condensate for December-loading and aims to export 30 cargoes of the ultra light crude in 2019.

Separately, buyers have baulked at a counter offer of $5 a barrel above dated Brent from Vietnam's PV Oil for light Bach Ho crude supplies for January to June 2019. PV Oil is expected to award Bach Ho term tenders later this week.

BRENT-DUBAI EFS

*Brent's premium to Dubai swaps was at $1.30 per barrel, up 5 cents for January.

REFINERY

China's Sinochem Group agreed to annual crude oil supply deals for 2019 with Saudi Aramco and Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) with volumes from both suppliers more than 20 percent higher than in 2018, a senior Sinochem executive said.

China's private chemical group Hengli Petrochemical 600346.SS said it has entered an annual crude purchase deal with Saudi Aramco for 2019 supplies of 130,000 barrels per day, which marks the top OPEC producer's second major marketing alliance with a private Chinese refiner.

NEWS

Saudi Arabia plans to reduce oil supply to world markets by 0.5 million barrels per day in December, its energy minister said on Sunday, as the OPEC power faces uncertain prospects in its attempts to persuade other producers to agree a coordinated output cut.

India plans to lease out half of its Padur strategic oil reserve site in southern India to Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) for storing crude, sources said.

China's eastern coastal city of Zhoushan is set to grant its first crude oil import license to a local commodity trader in coming months, using Beijing's policy sweeteners to attract oil and gas investment, a local government official told Reuters.

Canada's biggest railroad says it is attracting interest from oil producers in its effort to move crude in solid, puck-like form, as clogged pipelines divert more oil to riskier rail transport.