SINGAPORE: Outlook for August-loading cargoes in the Asia-Pacific crude market remained weak as a slight increase in supplies will be met by lower demand in the region.
Supply has crept up for August with one more cargo each of Chim Sao, Pyrenees and North West Shelf (NWS) condensate.
In Australia, one cargo each of Vincent and Van Gogh will be available in August, a trader said, in addition to the two Pyrenees cargoes to be marketed by BHP.
The closure of two refineries in the region for scheduled maintenance could curb demand for light to medium sweet grades.
Japan's Taiyo Oil will remain shut in August for maintenance and Vitol's Geelong refinery in Australia is also scheduled to shut in the third quarter for repairs.
The market will not see additional Banyu Urip crude supplies soon as Indonesia has rejected Exxon Mobil's proposal to increase output from the Cepu block, the country's upstream oil and gas regulator told parliament on Tuesday.
Exxon had proposed to increase output from Cepu to 200,000 bpd from the current 185,000 bpd.
Brent's premium to Dubai swaps, or Brent-Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS) edged down 3 cents to $3.65 a barrel for August.
REFINERY
China's commerce ministry said on Tuesday it granted a crude import licence to independent refinery Shandong Haiyou Petrochemical Group.
Contractors to provide copyrighted technologies used in seven workshops under the $1.8 billion project to expand Vietnam's Dung Quat refinery, have been selected, the Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper quoted a refinery executive as saying.
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