SINGAPORE: Russian ESPO premiums remained weak in the Asia-Pacific crude market after Rosneft sold two cargoes via a tender, traders said on Thursday.
Rosneft sold a May 11 to 14 cargo to Vitol at $2.45 a barrel above Dubai quotes, likely the lowest premium so far for May-loading cargoes. Rosneft's May 22 to 25 cargo was sold at a premium of $3.20 a barrel to Gunvor.
Surgutneftegaz sold five cargoes at premiums ranging from $2.50 to $3.10 a barrel to GS Caltex, Vitol, Eni, Unipec and Shell for loading on May 10 to 14, 14 to 18, 19 to 23, 23 to 27 and 27 to 31, respectively.
Tenergy sold one of its two ESPO cargoes loading on May 24 to 27 and 28 to 31 to a Chinese trader although details remained sketchy.
The producer earlier sold a May 7 to 12 cargo at a premium of about $3 a barrel to an unknown buyer. Last week, Tenergy sold two cargoes to Eni and ChemChina at premiums of above $3.50 a barrel.
Russian Sokol also came under pressure. ONGC has likely sold a Sokol cargo loading on June 1 to 7 at $3.60 above Oman/Dubai quotes to a trading company, down from a premium of $4.80 in its previous sale of a May-loading cargo.
Brent's premium to Dubai swaps, or Brent-Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS), narrowed 13 cents to $2.72 a barrel on Thursday.
TENDERS
India's MRPL seeks 600,000 barrels of low-sulphur crude loading on May 16 to 31 in a tender to close on April 5 with offers valid until April 7.
REFINERY
Japan's biggest refiner, JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp , said on Thursday it had shut the 35,000 barrels per day condensate splitter at its Mizushima-B plant amid sluggish domestic demand due to warm weather.
MARKET NEWS
China's crude oil imports are expected to reach 7.5 million barrels per day (bpd) this year, likely exceeding the United States as top importer, Zhong Fuliang, vice president of Unipec, the trading arm of Sinopec, told a seminar on Thursday.
Saudi Aramco was continuing to work on both its upstream and downstream projects without any cancellations, with its Khurais scheme expected to come online in 2018, the chief executive of the state-owned oil giant said on Wednesday.
OPEC oil output is rising in March, a Reuters survey found, as higher supply from Iran after lifting of sanctions and near-record exports from southern Iraq offset maintenance and outages in smaller producers.
Japan's total oil sales fell in February to their lowest for the month in seven years, trade ministry data released on Thursday showed, mainly due to sluggish fuel oil demand with the restart of some nuclear reactors.
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