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SINGAPORE: Russian oil in Asia remained under pressure on Wednesday with June-loading Sokol and Sakhalin Blend sold at lower premiums than previous deals.
Unsold supply of another Russian crude ESPO from May and lower demand from Chinese teapots weighed on Russian oil premiums, traders said.
ONGC sold a June 13-19 Sokol cargo to Mitsui at about $3.50 a barrel above Oman/Dubai quotes, traders said, down from a premium of $3.68 a barrel fetched for a previous tender by the Indian oil explorer.
Sakhalin Energy has sold June-loading Sakhalin Blend at $3-$4 a barrel above Dubai quotes, down from $4.65 a barrel in the previous month, a trader said.
Condensate came under pressure after fire hit an oil tank owned by Singapore's Jurong Aromatics.
JAC planned to restart the complex in May under a tolling agreement with some of its shareholders that would help improve its cashflow, according to Thomson Reuters publication PFI.
"That's a bearish factor for sure," a trader said, adding that the news may benefit Pertamina which has a tender seeking June-loading condensate.
Brent's premium to Dubai swaps, or Brent-Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS) dropped 10 cents to $3.66 a barrel for June from the previous session.
TENDERS
Rosneft offered three ESPO cargoes for loading on June 3-6, 10-13 and 26-29 in a tender to close on April 21 with bids valid until April 27.
There will be 23 ESPO cargoes loading in June, down from 28 in the previous month, due to a pipeline maintenance.
MARKET NEWS
Chevron Corp has signed an agreement to sell its Hawaii refinery to private equity firm One Rock Capital Partners, ending a more-than-six-year quest to sell an asset not considered core to its business.
Phillips 66 has purchased a cargo of Algerian crude oil for its Bayway refinery in New Jersey for the first time since 2013, two sources said, the latest US refiner on the East Coast to shun domestic crudes in favor of cheaper imports.
Six supertankers have lined up at Kuwait's crude export terminal to load oil on Wednesday, as the country's oil and gas sector gradually returns to normal after workers ended a three-day strike that had slashed crude production.
India's oil imports in March rose 8.2 percent on year to 4.22 million barrels per day (bpd), or 17.84 million tonnes, government data showed.
India's Hindustan Petroleum Corp plans to invest around $3.8 billion to ramp up its refining capacity by two-thirds this decade, as the country's oil demand soars and to meet cleaner fuel standards, a company official told Reuters.
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