SINGAPORE: Spot premiums for Papua New Guinea's Kutubu rose in the Asia-Pacific crude market as refiners soak up light grades to meet strong gasoline demand.
Oil Search sold two Kutubu cargoes loading in early- and late-March at around $4 a barrel above dated Brent, according to traders, more than a $1 above last month's level.
The identity of the buyers were unknown, and the deals could not be independently verified.
Condensate values may also have improved from last month despite weaker naphtha cracks, after BHP Billiton, Chevron and Mitsui sold a cargo each of Australia's Northwest Shelf (NWS) loading in March, traders said, although the price details were unclear.
Japan's Cosmo Oil Co said on Tuesday it had purchased a U.S. crude oil cargo, the first by a buyer in the country since the ending of a four-decade ban on U.S. crude exports.
Vietnam's PV Oil offered 300,000 barrels of Bach Ho loading March 25-31 in a tender that closes on Wednesday.
Brent's premium to Dubai swaps, or Brent-Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS), held steady at $3.37 a barrel. The spread has held mostly within a $3-$4 range since the start of December.
Petronas is planning to slash spending by as much as 50 billion ringgit ($11.4 billion) over the next four years, as a slump in oil prices to multi-year lows pinches profits of the Malaysian state firm.
MARKET NEWS
Chevron will not extend its contract to operate the East Kalimantan oil and gas block in Indonesia, the U.S. energy giant said on Tuesday, as plunging crude prices hit producers around the world.
Unseasonably warm weather and rising supply will keep the crude oil market oversupplied until at least late 2016, the International Energy Agency said in its monthly report on Tuesday.
A storage project with 25 million barrels of space will open in Oman in 2019, helping to keep the country's oil flowing, Oman Tank Terminal Company (OTTCO) said on Tuesday.
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