--Middle East

　In trade for February-loading Basrah Medium (BM), end-users in China and India continued spot purchase. With supply fears of Russian grades and Iranian grades, these end-users had to secure BM as an alternative. Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) had purchased 1mil barrels of February-loading BM via a tender in mid-January as reported. After the deal, China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) bought 1mil barrels of February-loading BM from European Glencore at premiums of $1.80-1.90 to the OSP, according to sources. Meanwhile, France's Total Energies apparently sold 1mil Barrels of February-loading BM at the same price levels as the above although the buyer was unknown. One trader in Singapore reckoned that there were few spot cargoes of February-loading BM available since demand from China and India was strong.

--Africa/Europe/Russia/America

　In the trade of Canadian crudes bound for Asia, China's Rongsheng Petrochemical purchased a total of four cargoes of Canadian Acess Western Blend (AWB) and Cold Lake ex the Trans Mountain Pipeline (TMX) in Canada.

--Asia Pacific

　In trade for March-loading Australian condensates, two cargoes of Wheatstone were unplaced. US Chevron had one cargo for first-half March loading while Australia's Woodside handled one cargo for late March loading.On the demand side, active buyers were hardly observed. Major buyers such as Hanwha Total Energies, SK Energy and PTT Public Co. seemed to have already covered demand for this timing. In addition, refinery margins for naphtha considerably aggravated, and thus most end-users had thin interest in procuring Australian condensates such as Wheatstone amid a sense that the current value of these condensates was expensive.