Middle East

In the trade of September-loading Middle Eastern condensates, Aramco Trading was sad to have sold a total of 5.00 to 6.00 mil bbl of Saudi Arabia's Khuff condensate to Asia. Aramco Trading sold a total of five cargoes to end-users in South Korea. Those end-users in South Korea included S-Oil owned by Saudi Aramco, Hyundai Chemical and SK Energy. In addition, traders like European Vitol, Trafigura and Glencore secured one cargo each. The details of prices were unclear but several cargoes were sold at discounts of $1.00 or larger than $1.00 to Dubai quotes. The release of the heavy volumes of the condensate was resulted from regular maintenance in Saudi Arabia's 550,000 barrels per day (b/d) Ras Tanura refinery.

Africa/Europe/Russia/America

The market of September-loading East Siberian ESPO fell to premiums of 70-80cts to Dubai quotes. Crack margins for jet fuel remained weak in China, so that Chinese independent refiners didn't show keen buying interest. Meanwhile, the traders had uncommitted cargoes for September-loading, thus supply/demand fundamentals were loose. A trader resold September-loading ESPO to a Chinese end-user. Price was at a premium of 70-80cts to Dubai quotes. "Sentiment is weak. Chinese end-users would not show buying interest unless the offers fall to the above level," a Singapore trader said.

Asia Pacific

Spot differentials for September-loading Australian NWSC dropped to discounts of $3.00-3.10 to Dated Brent. Demand/supply fundamentals worsened as rising inflows of Middle Eastern condensates into Asia eroded demand for regional condensates such as NWSC. For September-loading NWSC, one cargo each was allocated to Mitsui & Co and British BP. Of these, Mitsui still has the cargo unsettled.