Middle East Crude

Indian Oil Corp (IOC) purchased 2.0 mil barrels of Khafji crude in the Neutral Zone for early December arrival in its recent crude buy tender. The winner was Aramco Trading Co (ATC). End-users in India appeared to prioritize buying Middle Eastern crudes recently as prices in the Middle East market were sensed as attractive, relative to arbitrage cargoes. It later turned out that the Khafji was awarded at a premium of below 50cts to November Dubai quotes. Khafji has an API gravity of about28 degrees with a sulfur content of about 2.9% and the quality is close to Saudi Arabia's Arab Heavy (AH).

African/European/Russian/American Crude

In the trade of Nigerian grades, Dangote group in the country would receive a total of five cargoes for November-loading from Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC). Dangote group would deliver these cargoes to its own refinery (650,000 barrels per day). The five cargoes were two cargoes of Qua Iboe(Nov 6-7 loading and Nov 28-29 loading), and one cargo each for Amenam (Nov 7-8 loading), Forcados(Nov 17-18 loading) and Escravos(Nov 21-22 loading). Meanwhile, in trade for North Sea grades, two cargoes of November-loading Forties were canceled. Production at the Buzzard oil field was disrupted, leading to a decline in Forties output, according to sources.

Asia Pacific Crude

In the trade n trade for Vietnamese grades, the country's state-owned PV Oil issued a term sell tender for Su Tu Den. Through the tender that would be closed on October 14 at 9:00 Vietnam time with validity till October 24 at 18:00, PV Oil was trying to sell one cargo of 200,000barrles per month for January to June-loading. The volume was relatively small at 200,000 barrels, co-loading with other regional grades would be necessary for transportation. Given that this posed a disadvantage for buyers, "it is highly likely that Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical (BSR), which operates domestically in Vietnam, will win the tender again," said a Northeast Asian refiner. BSR also won a term sell tender for Su Tu Den for July to December 2025 loading.