SINGAPORE: The Asia-Pacific crude market held steady on Wednesday supported by robust demand, while Brent's narrowing gap to Dubai grades could also provide some support for regional grades.
Spot differentials have increased slightly this month, although premiums remained depressed due to an oversupply in the region.
PV Oil sold 200,000 barrels of March-loading Song Doc crude in a tender at around $4.10-$4.20 a barrel above dated Brent, roughly in line with the previous month, traders said.
The cargo may have been bought by Shell, one trader said, although the deal could not be independently verified.
Brent's premium to Dubai swaps, or Brent-Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS), widened 12 cents to $1.58 a barrel, but remained near its lowest in three months.
A narrow spread makes Brent-linked grades more competitive compared with Middle Eastern and Russian Pacific grades.
Petronas issued two tenders for 310,000 barrels of Cakerawala condensate loading March 6-15 and for 300,000 barrels of Muda condensate loading March 25-31. Both tenders close Jan. 22 with bids valid for one day.
Malaysian crude exports in March would be largely unchanged from the previous month, a trading source said.
Petronas began marketing March-cargoes this week, but no deals were done yet.
Australia's Northwest Shelf condensate (NWS) for March-loading was offered by sellers at around $3.50 a barrel below dated Brent, a trader said.
The condensate was last month sold at a discount of slightly less than $4 a barrel, according to Reuters data. An improving naphtha market could provide some support for condensate, one trader said.
Russian oil output may see a natural decline of a maximum of around 1 million barrels per day (bpd), Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on Wednesday.
Brent continued to hover below $50 a barrel on Wednesday, but analysts said the outlook remained bleak due to oversupply.
Iraq's oil minister Adel Abdel Mehdi, speaking at an energy industry conference in Kuwait on Wednesday, said he thought oil prices had reached a floor and it would be hard to go lower.
The chief executive of Total said oil prices are likely to remain at a low level throughout the first half of the year.
MARKET NEWS
Oman oil minister Mohammad bin Hamad al-Rumhy sharply criticised OPEC's production policy on Wednesday, saying it was creating volatility in the market without benefiting oil producers and that his country was suffering.
Oil drilling in the United States will continue to fall in the first half of this year, and could even halve, according to major oil service companies looking to past slowdowns as a guide.
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