SINGAPORE: The Asia-Pacific crude market held steady on Tuesday, supported by strong refining margins and a contango that allows traders to store crude for sale in future months.
Complex refining margins in the Singapore hub have averaged above $8 a barrel over the last three weeks, compared with just over $6 a barrel in December.
BP and Total have leased Southeast Asia's first commercial independent storage facility for crude oil, which will begin operations in Malaysia next month, industry sources said.
Located in Pengerang, in the southern state of Johor, the facilities operated by Vopak can store 420,000 cubic metres of oil (2.6 million barrels).
Brent-Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS), or Brent's premium to Dubai swaps, was steady at $1.52 a barrel.
TENDERS
Thailand's PTT is seeking between 600,000 barrels and 1 million barrels of sweet or sour crude for delivery at its Rayong plant from April 1-5. The tender closes on Wednesday.
Pertamina has awarded a contract to Vitol to supply Indonesia with 1.9 million barrels of crude and to Azeri state energy firm Socar to supply 1.2 million barrels of crude for delivery in April, the company said.
Pertamina's Integrated Supply Chain (ISC) division, which handles petroleum tenders, also awarded a contract to Angola's Sonangol to supply 950,000 barrels of crude per month from February to June.
REFINERY
SK Energy will take a 240,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) crude distillation unit (CDU) and a 45,000 bpd hydrocracker, a middle distillates unit, at its Ulsan refinery down for a month-long maintenance starting around mid-March, traders said.
MARKET NEWS
French energy company Total has relinquished its South West Bird's Head exploration block in Papua, an official at Indonesia's energy regulator told Reuters on Tuesday, without giving a reason.
Idemitsu Kosan, Japan's second-biggest refiner by sales, on Tuesday revised its full-year earnings forecast to a loss, the company's first since it went public in 2006, as plunging oil prices forced it to book huge inventory losses.
CEFC China Energy, a small chemicals and fuel company, is beefing up its oil business to get ready for more open domestic oil markets, hiring trading managers from state energy giants, building storage tanks and looking to invest in oilfields.
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