Middle East Crude

State-owned Saudi Aramco reduced June-loading term supplies for its long-term contractors in China as reported. The details for allocations to each company for June-loading were later unveiled. Saudi Aramco allocated 14.0 million barrels to China in total, down by 4.00 million barrels, or 22.2% from the May allocated volume of 18.00 million barrels. PetroChina planned to receive the largest volume of 6.0 million barrels, the same volume as May. Rongsheng Petrochemical planned to take 2.0 million barrels in June, halved from the previous month. Meanwhile, Fujin Refining & Petrochemical doubled its intake from Saudi Arabia to 4.0 million barrels. China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) would take 2.0 million barrels, compared with zero in the previous month.

African/European/Russian/American Crude

In trade for African grades, Sinochem sold June-loading Dalia to China International United Petroleum & Chemicals Co (UNIPEC). The price was said to have been at discounts of $3 to Dated Brent. As previously reported, Sinochem had initially offered this cargo at discounts of $2.25 to Dated Brent. Meanwhile, Sonangol still had June-loading Dalia and Pazflor available for sale. Further, UNIPEC purchased June-loading Djeno from European BB Energy. The price was said to have been at discounts of $5.5 to Dated Brent. Meanwhile, May-loading Djeno cargoes still remained unplaced. French TotalEnergies was offering two May-loading Djeno cargoes on a CFR basis to Asian end-users.

Asia Pacific Crude

In the trade for Australian crude grades, one end-user in the market last month purchased Ichthys condensate for Jun 1-5 loading from INPEX and resold the cargo to Southeast Asia as reported. It later turned out that the end-user was US ExxonMobil that resold the cargo to Hengyi Petrochemical. Hengyi was believed to bring the cargo to its 175,000 barrels per day (b/d) Pulau Muara Busar refinery in Brunei. In the trade of July-loading Papua New Guinea's crudes, US ExxonMobil had one cargo for July-loading Kutubu available for sale. ExxonMobil appeared to have reduced the operating rate at its 605,000 barrels per day (b/d) Jurong refinery in Singapore. The major could move to sell the July-loading Kutubu if the current demand was tepid. In the May-loading trade when supply fears increased amid turmoil in the Middle East, the major skipped spot sales of Kutubu.