SINGAPORE: The Asia-Pacific crude market held steady on Monday as traders awaited results of several tenders to gauge market direction for May-loading cargoes.
Strong refining margins supported demand for April-loading cargoes, but spot differentials for May-loading cargoes were seen mostly unchanged as refiners enter the peak maintenance season.
ConocoPhillips will close a tender on Tuesday to sell 600,000 barrels of Bayu Undan condensate due to load over May 18-24.
The condensate market had been supported by strong naphtha cracks, although the demand outlook was mixed. Jurong Aromatics Corporation (JAC) is expected to restart its petrochemical complex in Singapore in the first half of April, but industry sources said it holds sufficient condensate feedstock for the upstart.
India's ONGC offered 700,000 barrels of Sokol crude loading over May 21-27 in a tender that closes on March 18 with bids valid for one day. Premiums for the Russian grade rose last week to more than $5 a barrel against Dubai quotes for a cargo loading in end-May.
Brent-Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS), or Brent's premium to Dubai swaps, narrowed 33 cents to $1.52 a barrel.
A VLCC docked on Monday at southeast Asia's first commercial crude oil tank farm in Pengerang, Malaysia, and will unload about 1 million barrels of Middle East crude, joint venture partners Vopak and Dialog Group said.
MARKET NEWS
The chief financial officer of commodities firm Trafigura, Pierre Lorinet, who led the trading house's headquarters relocation to Singapore from Switzerland in 2012, is stepping down from October, Trafigura said on Monday.
Oil prices have started to stabilise around $60 a barrel in past weeks and will continue to firm up, while crude demand will grow stronger, an adviser to Saudi Arabia's oil minister said on Sunday.
South Korea imported 557,174 tonnes of crude oil from Iran in February, down 50.4 percent from a year ago, preliminary data from Korea Customs Service showed on Sunday.
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