Middle East Crude

Indian Oil Corp Ltd (IOC) on Thursday bought QM and African grades such as Akpo via a tender. PetroChina sold 1mil barrels for July-loading QM for August arrival to IOC. It is rare for IOC to buy QM in the spot market. IOC had previously taken QM from Qatar Energy (QE) via a term contract but IOC had currently no term contract for QM with QE. One trader in Singapore noted that PetroChina might have offered QM to IOC at the competitive price through the tender.

African/European/Russian/American Crude

　The Northeast Asia market of US WTI for August arrival firmed. The market was buoyed by stronger FOB prices reflecting healthy demand in US. Japan's Taiyo Oil previously purchased 1.0 mil barrels of US WTI for September arrival. The seller was South Korea's SK Energy. The price was said to be at a premium of mid $5.00s to Dubai quotes on a CFR basis. The price was seen as slightly higher than VLCCs that are more often traded as the cargo size was 1.0 mil bbls.

Asia Pacific Crude

In trade for August-loading Vietnamese grades, Petro Vietnam Oil Corp (PV OIL) floated a Chim Sao sell tender. The tender would be closed on June 12 with validity until June 17. Through the tender, PV OIL was trying to sell one cargo of 300,000barrels for August 23-27 loading. Meanwhile, some end-users such as Australia's Ampol and Vietnam's Bin Son Refining & Petrochemical (BSR) were likely to participate in the tender. It was widely believed that buying inquiries for Vietnamese grades such as Chim Sao might be robust amid a sense the value of WTI Midland bound for Aisa was expensive. Under such circumstances, one end-user in Northeast Asia predicted that tradable levels for August-loading Chim Sao would rise to premiums of slightly below $5 to Dated Brent. Vietnam's Bin Son Refining & Petrochemical (BSR) had won a July-loading Chim Sao tender at premiums in the mid to high $4's to Dated Brent as reported. Apart from that, PV OIL was believed to open August-loading Ruby and SV-DN sell tenders soon.