Middle East Crude

State-owned Saudi Aramco on Apr 13 unveiled its May-loading schedule for Saudi Arabian grades, or acceptance. Saudi Arabia supplied about 18.00 million barrels of Saudi crudes to its long-term buyers in China, less than the half of April-loading intakes of 40.00 million barrels. The reduction reflected the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and actual loadings of Saudi grades were limited at the Yanbu port in the Red Sea. In addition, "Chinese end-users may have regarded the May-loading OSPs for Saudi Arabian grades as expensive," said an end-user in Asia. Saudi Aramco raised May-loading OSP formulas for all grades by $17.00 from the previous month as reported. The OSP for Saudi Arabia's flagship Arab Light (AL) was settled at a premium of $19.50 to Dubai/Oman average. Regarding intake volumes by companies, China International United Petroleum & Chemicals Co (UNIPEC) received 2.0 million barrels, sharply down from 21.00 million barrels in April. Rongsheng Petrochemical took 4.0 million barrels, down 3.0 million barrels from the previous month.

African/European/Russian/American Crude

　In the trade of Sudanese grades, Senning awarded a sell tender for May-loading Dar Blend to PetroChina. The awarded price was said to have been at premium levels to Dated Brent. Through the tender, Senning was trying to sell 1mil barrels for May loading. With the majority of supplies of medium-heavy Middle Eastern crude disrupted, several players were believed to have participated in the tender in a bid to secure Dar Blend as an alternative grade.

Asia Pacific Crude

In trade for Malaysian grades, the loading program for June-loading Kimanis was settled. Following the previous month, a total of five cargoes were scheduled for supply for June loading. The country's state-owned Petronas would handle two cargoes for June 8-12 loading and June 20-24 loading. US ConocoPhillips would handle one cargo for June 1-5 loading. PTTEP, the upstream arm of Thailand's PTT, would handle one cargo for June 20-24 loading, while Brunei Energy Services & Trading (BEST) would handle one cargo for June 26-30 loading.

BEST issued a sell tender for the aforementioned June 26-30 loading cargo. The tender is due by 10:00 am Singapore time on Thursday. This marked the first time in five months, since the January-loading, that BEST had conducted a sell tender for Kimanis.