Middle East Crude

　In trade of Qatari crudes, state-owned Qatar Energy issued a sell tender for November-loading Al Shaheen, Qatar Land (QL) and Qatar Marine (QM). It offered Al Shaheen for Nov 18-29 loading, QM for 14-29 loading and QL for 1-29 loading. The tender closed on Wednesday with validity until the same day. The loading ports are inside the Persian Gulf. Al Shaheen is for the Floating Storage Offloading (FSO), QL for Mesaieed Port and QM for Halul Island.

African/European/Russian/American Crude

　In trade for Senegalese crude, November-loading Sangomar changed hands. Australia's Woodside sold one cargo for Nov 19-20 loading. The price was unknown, but the buyer was said to be a European end-user. Buying interest in Sangomar among European buyers appeared to remain firm.

　Despite a sharp rise in global freight rates, the relatively short shipping distance from Senegal to Europe supported European buyers' appetite for the grade. Meanwhile, Chinese buyers showed little interest in purchasing Sangomar, viewing its delivered price as relatively expensive. Woodside was handling a total of three cargoes of November-loading Sangomar and had sold one cargo for Nov 8-9 loading to one European end-user in early October. The company could sell one more cargo for Nov 30-Dec 1 loading at present.

Asia Pacific Crude

　In December-loading trade, Australian Wheatstone supply was expected to resume, with Chevron set to handle one cargo. Scheduled maintenance at the Wheatstone LNG project (8.9mn t/yr) off northwest Australia is expected to be completed before late November. The maintenance temporarily reduced production capacity by the equivalent of 1.5- 2 of the project's two liquefaction trains, resulting in no Wheatstone supply for November loading.