SINGAPORE: The Asia-Pacific crude market held steady, while regional condensates were supported by demand from new splitters and Brent's narrow gap to Dubai crude, traders said on Monday.
All four cargoes of Australia's Northwest Shelf (NWS) condensate were committed with at least three cargoes sold to South Korean buyers as they look to regional grades to benefit from weak Brent prices.
Brent-Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS) <DUB-EFS-1M>, or Brent's premium to Dubai swaps, narrowed 10 cents to $1.02 a barrel.
SK Energy, GS Caltex and SamsungTotal bought a cargo each of NWS loading in November at $2-$2.40 a barrel below Dated Brent, traders said. GS Caltex, which normally buys Middle East condensate, last month also bought a cargo of Bayu Undan.
Premiums for Malaysia's Muda condensate also improved, after SK Energy bought a November-loading cargo in a tender from Petronas. The cargo may have traded at around $1.50 a barrel above Dated Brent, a trader said, although the price could not be confirmed.
Petronas also sold a cargo of Cakerawala to SamsungTotal, but the details could not be confirmed.
Premiums for Labuan held steady, after Thailand's PTT bought 300,000 barrels of Labuan crude for November-loading from Petronas at $5.70-$5.90 a barrel above Dated Brent.
With a glut of oil in the Atlantic Basin and Asia weighing on oil prices in recent months, market traders and observers were eyeing possible action from OPEC to halt the decline.
"With Asian demand so soft, supply will have to adjust to balance the market," analysts at Barclays said in a note, adding that they do not expect any significant improvement in Chinese oil demand growth over the fourth quarter.
China's implied oil demand increased 3.4 percent on year in August, while crude imports grew 8.4 percent in the first eight months of the year.
"However, we expect Chinese imports to continue the momentum, on further commercial and strategic stockpiling," they said.
REFINERY
Idemitsu Kosan Co, Japan's second-biggest oil refiner, said on Monday it planned to refine 466,300 barrels per day (6.82 million kilolitres) of crude oil in October-December, down 4 percent from a year earlier as fuel-efficient vehicles become more common.
MARKET NEWS
Pioneer Natural Resources plans to double its U.S. exports of condensate, an ultra-light oil, to 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) next year, its chief executive said on Monday.
Algerian state oil firm Sonatrach has raised its main export grade Saharan Blend's official selling prices (OSP) for October, it said on Monday.
Iran on Friday urged OPEC members to make joint efforts to keep oil prices from falling further, highlighting a split with other members such as Saudi Arabia who face lower budget pressures despite a slide in prices towards $95 a barrel.
Egypt plans to invest $14.5 billion in developing its refining and petrochemicals sectors over the next five years, its oil minister said, as part of efforts to overcome an energy crisis that has led to near-daily power cuts and hit company profits.
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