Middle Eastern crude benchmarks Oman, Dubai and Murban advanced on Tuesday as spot trade gears up amid robust demand from China.
China’s Rongsheng is heard having bought 4 million barrels of Upper Zakum crude for June-delivery, likely from CNOOC and Glencore, traders said.
CHINA
China’s crude oil imports fell 1.3% in the first two months of 2023 from a year earlier, data showed on Tuesday, but analysts pointed to accelerating imports in February as a sign that fuel demand was rebounding after Beijing scrapped COVID-19 controls.
Imports during January-February totalled 84.06 million tonnes, or about 10.40 million barrels per day (bpd), according to the General Administration of Customs. China imported 10.53 mln bpd in the same period last year.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
Cash Dubai’s premium to swaps rose 19 cents to $2.17 a barrel.
ASIAN REFINERIES
Japan’s biggest refiner, Eneos Corp, has shut the 129,000 barrels-per-day crude distillation unit (CDU) at its Chiba refinery on Monday for scheduled maintenance, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Second-phase units for Kuwait’s Al Zour refinery are now operating, state news agency KUNA cited KIPIC CEO Waleed Al-Badr as saying on Tuesday.
NEWS
The United Arab Emirates has been taking more cargoes of Russian crude oil, according to ship tracking data and trading sources, in another example of how Western sanctions on Russia have adjusted traditional energy trade flows.
U.S. crude oil and product inventories were expected to have decreased last week, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday. Seven analysts polled by Reuters estimated on average that crude inventories fell by about 300,000 barrels in the week to March 3.
U.S. energy executives and top OPEC officials on Monday discussed concerns about a lack of spare oil production capacity at a private dinner on the sidelines of a Houston conference, an executive who attended said.
Venezuela has laid out a work plan to increase crude production with Russian oil company Rosneft, the South American country’s oil minister said Monday.
Source: Reuters