Middle East Crude

　In the trade of Iraqi grades, China's Shenghong Petrochemical purchased October-loading Basrah Medium (BM). The price was unknown but the seller was said to be European Trafigura. The spot market for October-loading BM so far tracked a weak trend. The initial deal was done at a discount of 20cts to OSP, but after that, traded levels fell to discounts of 50-70cts to OSP. This was because supplies were increasing amid the production policy by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC. Furthermore, demand from India lacked vigor as an end of monsoon season in the country was delayed from normal years.

African/European/Russian/American Crude

　Indonesia's state-owned Pertamina closed a buy tender for November to December arrival on Wednesday at 10:00 Jakarta time with validity until Friday at 20:00. Through the tender, Pertamina was trying to buy 350,000barrels for Nov 21-23 arrival and 950,000barrels for Dec 5-14 arrival in its Cilacap refinery(348,000b/d) while the company was seeking 950,000barrels each for Nov 1-3 arrival, Dec 1-3 arrival and Dec 4-7 arrival in its Balikpapan refinery(260,000 b/d). Besides, the company was trying to purchase 950,000barrels for Dec 1-3 arrival in its Balongan refinery (125,000b/d). Pertamina was seeking light crude oil, medium-heavy crude oil, and condensates for these refineries.

Asia Pacific Crude

　Malaysia's state-owned Petronas awarded a sell tender for end-November loading to one Australian end-user late last week. The awarded price was at premiums in the low $8's to Dated Brent, and the winner was said to have been European Vitol or Ampol. These players operated refineries in Australia. Labuan for end-month loading marketed by Petronas via tenders typically command higher premiums to Dated Brent than spot market levels, due to the nature of the transactions. Ampol was seen as a keen bidder in the above tender, following the resolution of operational issues at its CDU (Crude Distillation Unit) at the Lytton refinery (with a capacity of 104,000 b/d) in late August.