SINGAPORE: The Asia-Pacific crude market was supported by strong refinery demand on Thursday, while arbitrage supply was curbed by Brent's widening premium to Dubai swaps.
Complex refining margins in the Singapore complex averaged above $9 a barrel in the past week, up from an average below $7 a barrel last month.
A widening gap between Brent and Dubai swaps, which reached a 16-month high of $2.95 a barrel on Thursday, also made it less attractive for Asian refiners to purchase crude in West Africa.
Condensate was supported by naphtha cracks near eight-month highs and fresh demand from Indonesia's TPPI plant.
Spot differentials for Australia's Northwest Shelf condensate (NWS) may have risen to around $2.70 a barrel above dated Brent, traders said, although the details remained unclear.
Chevron last sold a Jan. 30-Feb. 3 cargo at a premium of around $2.30 a barrel, after which BP and Mitsubishi held a cargo each loading on Jan. 13-17 and Jan. 21-25, respectively.
The premium for Malaysia's Muda condensate also rose after Petronas sold 300,000 barrels loading on Jan. 20-26 at more than $5 a barrel above dated Brent, according to traders. The buyer and the pricing details were unknown.
Vietnam's crude oil exports in the first 11 months of 2015 eased an estimated 0.2 percent from a year ago to 8.44 million tonnes, or 185,000 barrels per day (bpd), the government said on Thursday.
MARKET NEWS
OPEC is determined to keep pumping oil vigorously despite the resulting financial strain even on the policy's chief architect, Saudi Arabia, alarming weaker members who fear prices may slump further towards $20.
China's commercial crude oil stocks at the end of October fell 4.4 percent from the previous month in their biggest drop since at least 2010, and refined fuel stocks were down 8.5 percent, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday.
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