SINGAPORE: Spot differentials for Russian Sokol strengthened in the Asia-Pacific crude market, as the short-haul grade benefited from high transportation costs for competing grades from other regions.
India's ONGC sold 700,000 barrels of Sokol crude loading Feb. 20-26 in a tender at around $3.50 a barrel above the Oman-Dubai average, traders said.
The premium to the Oman/Dubai average translates into a premium of around $4 a barrel against Dubai quotes, according to one trader. Last month, the grade traded at $3.55-$3.70 a barrel above Dubai quotes, according to Reuters data.
ONGC last sold a Sokol cargo loading early-February at $2.60 a barrel above the Oman-Dubai average, the data showed.
Japex, a shareholder in the Japanese SODECO consortium that partners in Russia's Sakhalin 1 project, sold a February-loading cargo at close to $4 a barrel above Dubai, a trader said.
ONGC may have sold its cargo to SK Energy, another trader said. The buyer of the second cargo was not clear, and the deals could not be independently verified.
Brent-Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS), or Brent's premium to Dubai swaps, widened 3 cents to $2.05 a barrel.
MARKET NEWS
Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government will ramp up oil exports in the coming months, moving it closer to economic self-sufficiency while it works to clinch a final deal with Baghdad on crude sales and revenue sharing.
OPEC members which backed an output cut at the group's meeting last month are coming around to the view of Saudi Arabia that they need to focus on market share, further reducing the chance of any action to defend prices.
Chinese oil firms will keep the amount of crude they buy from Iraq unchanged in 2015 for the first time in almost a decade, as the need for imports falls and concerns over the quality of the oil persist, five sources with knowledge of the situation said.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.