Middle East Crude

In trade for October-loading Abu Dhabi grades, Das changed hands. One end-user, which seemed one energy company in Northeast Asia, bought at least 500,000barrles although the price was unknown. It was believed that spot demand for October-loading Das might be weaker than usual months. Several market players noted that ENEOS and Cosmo Oil, major buyers of Das, might considerably slash purchase volumes of Das since these companies planned to conduct regular maintenance at refineries from October to November. In trade for Iraqi grades, Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) on Tuesday informed its long-term contractors that it would supply September-loading term cargoes as per contracts. SOME would supply Basrah Medium (BM) and Basrah Heavy (BH) in accordance with nominations. One trader in Singapore that the market for September-loading BM might not drop to large discounts to the OSP although demand from India and China might affect market sentiment.

African/European/Russian/American Crude

Indonesia's state-owned Pertamina issued a sweet crude buy tender for October to November arrival and closed it on August 14, with validity until August 16. Pertamina plans to buy cargoes for its 150,000 barrels per day (b/d) Balongan refinery in the tender. In the trade of Sudanese grades, Malaysia's state-owned Petronas sold 1.0 mil bbl of Nile Blend for Sep 21-23 loading via its sell tender closed on August 14. The price details were unknown but the buyer was European Vitol, following the previous tender.

Asia Pacific Crude

In trade for July-loading Malaysian grades, a supply program of Kimanis was settled and the supply recovered to six cargoes (each 600,000barrels) per month. Of these, Malaysia state-owned Petronas held three cargoes for Oct 2-6 loading, Oct 7-11 loading and Oct 24-28 loading while Briton's Shell held one cargo for Oct 13-17 loading. US Conoco Philipps had one cargo for Oct 19-23 loading and Brunei Energy Service Trading (BEST) held one cargo for Oct 30-Nov 3 loading. In tender-related news, Peratmina had bought Wheatstone via a tender for October arrival to TPPI from US Chevron. Through the tender that had been closed on August 6 with validity until August 8, Pertamina was trying to by one cargo for Oct 17-23 arrival.