MALAYSIA
Malaysia will export 11 Kimanis cargoes in May, up 1 cargo from the previous month, trade sources said on Thursday, based on the monthly loading programme for the grade.
Malaysia's Petronas has five cargoes while ConocoPhillips and Royal Dutch Shell will have three cargoes each, they said.
AUSTRALIA
More clarity emerged on the four Australian cargoes to be exported in May.
Australia's Woodside will load the Vincent crude in early May while BHP will load Pyrenees crude over May 15 to 19, industry sources said.
Chevron will load the Cossack crude cargo over May 4 to 8 while Woodside will export a Pluto condensate cargo with a flexible date range, they added.
Cossack shipments are resuming after no cargo was available for export in April.
There will be three North West Shelf condensate cargoes available for export in May, down from four in April.
BRENT-DUBAI EFS
Brent's premium to Dubai swaps was at $3.18 per barrel, down 9 cents for May.
NEWS
Global oil demand is expected to pick up this year but supply is growing at a faster pace, leading to a rise in inventories in the first quarter of 2018, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday.
The IEA raised its forecast for oil demand this year to 99.3 million barrels per day (bpd) from 97.8 million bpd in 2017.
Eastern China's Jiangsu province will step up its war on pollution and focus on "high-quality development" following a spike in smog early this year, the China Daily reported, citing the provincial governor.
Norway's Statoil said on Thursday it would change its name to Equinor, saying this would reflect its commitment to be a broad energy company rather than one just focussed on oil.
South Korea's crude oil imports from Iran dropped 31.2 percent in February from a year ago to 1.12 million tonnes, or 294,274 barrels per day (bpd), customs data showed on Thursday.
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