--Africa/Europe/Russia/America

　In the trade of Canadian heavy grades bound for Asia, July arrival deals for China changed hands. The TMX crude market has recently tracked a strong trend as more buyers in Asia were witnessed. In addition, end-users in China avoided taking US crudes, considering the US Trump Administration's tariff policy and Canadian grades attracted alternative demand, sending prices higher. China's Rongsheng Petrochemical was said to have purchased two cargoes (each 550,000bbl) of Access Western Blend (AWB) and one cargo of Cold Lakde for July arrival. The price of AWB was at a discount of mid $2.00s to ICE Brent on a CFR basis and that for Cold Lake was at a discount of mid $1.00w to ICE Brent on a CFR basis. The prices appeared to be at least 50cts higher than the previous month. Furthermore, China International United Petroleum & Chemicals Co (UNIPEC) was said to have procured one cargo of July arrival Cold Lake from French Total Energies.

--Middle East

　In other trade for May-loading Oman, Shandong Yulong Petrochemical was said to have bought 2mil barrels of May-loading Oman from a player in China seen as United Petroleum & Chemicals Co (UNIPEC). Yulong Petrochemical was scheduled to start operations of its No 2 Crude Distillation Unit (CUD, 200,000b/d) at petrochemical complex project in Shandong Province in end-March. Thus, the company increased intake of medium-heavy grades for delivery to its refinery.

--Asia Pacific

　April-loading Ichthys condensate was behind the schedule. This was because the 8.90mil mt/year ichthys LNG project in Australia had been in an outage since early April due to production trouble. One trader reckoned that the shipping of April-loading Ichthys condensate would be delayed by five to ten days. Regarding April-loading Ichthys condensate, three end-users such as US Exxon Mobile had bought one cargo each. Besides, the shipping of May to June-loading Ichthys condensates were expected to be delayed.