--Middle East

　State-owned Saudi Aramco on Thursday informed its long-term term buyers of supply situations for August-loading Saudi grades. Saudi Aramco would supply August-loading crudes to their term buyers in line with contractual volumes. "Saudi Aramco would provide supplies at upward tolerance," said a company in South Asia. For August-loading, a total of 51 mil bbls would be supplied to term buyers, up 4.00 mil bbls from the previous month. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC, or OPEC plus, agreed to increase production by 548,000 barrels per day (b/d) in August. In line with the agreement, Saudi Aramco was believed to have increased supplies especially for Arab Light (AL) and Arab Extra Light (AEL). Chinese company says, "Saudi Aramco is expanding sales strategically and at the same time they raised OSPs."

　Meanwhile, Saudi Aramco would skip additional supplies to some of its long-term buyers. Several contractors led by Chinese companies had requested the producer to take incremental term supplies for Arab Heavy (AH) and Arab Medium (AM), but Saudi Aramco apparently decided not to supply extra barrels. In Saudi Arabia entering a summer season, demand for AM and AH grew as fuels for power generation and the producer prioritized supplying crudes to the domestic market.

--Africa/Europe/Russia/America

　In trade for Brazilian grades for October arrival in Asia, China International United Petroleum & Chemicals Co (UNIPEC) bought three VLCCs (each 2mil barrels) in total. The prices were said to have been at premiums in the high $3' to $4 to Dated Brent. The sellers were Briton's Shell and France's Total Energies.

--Asia Pacific

　Vietnam's state-owned PV Oil awarded its September-loading Su Tu Den sell tender to the country's Binh Son Refining and Petrochemicals (BSR) and European Vitol for one cargo each. These cargoes were heard awarded at premiums of the $4.00s level to Dated Brent. In the tender that closed on Jul 8, with validity until Jul 9, PV had offered two cargoes for Sep 2-8 and 12-14 loading, each 300,000bbl.