Crude/Condensate: Jan 27-31: PTT buys Apr arrival WTI for IRPC
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) would settle March-loading OSPs in early February. ADNOC was likely to lift the OSP for March-loading Upper Zakum to premiums of about 10cts to Murban. In trade for February-loading, there were supply fears of Russian and Iranian grades. The US and European strengthened sanctions against Russia while the US was expected to impose additional sanctions on Iran. End-users in China and India, main buyers of Russian and Iranian grades, had increased purchase volumes of Middle East medium-heavy grades as an alternative to Russian and Iranian grades, which bolstered the market for March-loading Upper Zakum. One Japanese energy company noted that ADNOC would raise the evaluations for Upper Zakum since the market for March-loading Dubai gained relative to Murban.
Asia Pacific Crude In the trade of US grades for Asia, PTT in Thailand was said to have purchased US WTI Midlands for April arrival for its petrochemical firm IRPC in Thailand. The seller was US Chevron and the cargo was heard done on a FOB basis. PTT earlier procured 4.0 mil bbls of WTI for arrival in April, apparently boosting PTT's procurements of WTI to 6.0 mil bbls in total. A steep decline in freight rates recently opened the arbitrage window for Asia.
African/European/Russian/American Crude In trade for March-loading Australian grades, INPEX had awarded a late March-loading Ichthys condensate sell tender last week to one end-user in Korea. The awarded price was at premiums in the mid $2's to Dated Brent. Through the tender, INPEX was trying to sell one cargo for Mar 19-23 loading.
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