SINGAPORE: Spot premiums for Russian Sokol crude weakened in the Asia-Pacific crude market on Friday, weighed by ample supply and low seasonal demand.
India's ONGC sold 700,000 barrels of Sokol crude loading March 14-20 to BP in a tender at $3-3.20 a barrel above the Oman/Dubai average, traders said.
Last month, ONGC sold Sokol at a premium of around $3.50 a barrel, according to Reuters data.
Russia's Surgut offered two cargoes of ESPO crude loading Feb. 28-March 5 and March 6-11 in a tender that closes later on Friday.
About 22 tankers with storage options have been booked over the past week or so, as traders seek to profit from the steep contango, although activity may have slowed towards the end of the week, trading and shipping sources said.
Global inventories are expected to continue to build throughout the first half of this year, but eventually lower oil prices would begin to curb supply and help boost demand, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday.
Brent crude oil futures rose above $49 a barrel on Friday.
Brent-Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS), or Brent's premium to Dubai swaps, was unchanged at $1.70 a barrel.
REFINERY
PetroChina's Sichuan refinery and petrochemical complex is in the middle of a major planned overhaul till early February, a senior industry official with direct knowledge of the plant's operations said on Friday.
PetroChina's Dushanzi refinery also plans to shut down for routine maintenance in April, a source at the plant, located near the Kazakh border, said on Friday.
MARKET NEWS
Traders are shipping West African crude to the United States to store the oil until prices recover, as the global glut forces them to source any tanks available and as seaborne cargoes are able to compete better on price with U.S. crude.
A shipping insurer has warned that oil cargoes loaded ship to ship at a port in the United Arab Emirates may contain Iranian crude disguised as Iraqi barrels, and that it cannot insure these volumes as they are in breach of U.S. sanctions on Tehran.
India imported 42 percent more Iranian oil last year over 2013 levels as its refiners increased purchases to take advantage of an easing in sanctions targeting Tehran's nuclear programme.
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