Middle East Crude

In trade for September-loading Abu Dhabi grades, PTT Public Co purchased 500,000bbl of September-loading Das from French TotalEnergies and one cargo of September-loading Murban from China International United Petroleum & Chemicals Co (UNIPEC) in its buy tender for the country's IRPC. A trader in Singapore said, regarding the September-loading Das price sold by Trafigura, "The traded price was equivalent to a discount of about 70cts to September Murban when the deal changed hands." Apart from that, India's Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) floated a fresh buy tender for early October arrival to India. The tender closed on Thursday, with validity until the same day. HPCL in its recent tender purchased 4.0 mil bbls of Murban for September arrival and 2.0 mil Murban for September loading. HPCL apparently raised evaluations for Murban, regarding Murban values as more attractive relative to arbitrage light grades such as Nigerian Qua Iboe and US WTI Midlands.

African/European/Russian/American Crude

In the trade for US grades for October arrival in Northeast Asia, some players still moved on selling in late July and supply was not tight. Under such circumstances, offers for WTI Midland for October arrival in Northeast Asia were heard at premiums in the high $4's to Dated Brent. Meanwhile, some end-users in Korea apparently considered buying additional cargoes as offers dropped. One trader in Singapore reckoned that spot demand for WTI Midland might increase soon since the value of WTI Midland was currently sensed as attractive relative to Murban, a rival grade.

Asia Pacific Crude

In tender-related news, Indonesia's state-owned Pertamina floated a semi-term condensate buy tender for the country's petrochemical firm TPPI. The tender will close at 10:00 am on Jul 30, with validity until 20:00 on Aug 6. In the tender, Pertamina plans to secure 650,000bbl per month of condensates for October to December arrival.