In Oil & Companies News 13/05/2017
The Middle East crude benchmarks weakened on Friday following news that Formosa Petrochemical may shut a crude distillation unit soon for repair, weighing on demand.
*REFINERY: Formosa Petrochemical Corp has trimmed production at its 540,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery due to technical issues at one of the three crude distillate units (CDUs), a spokesman said on Thursday. Asia’s fifth largest refinery by capacity will need to shut a 180,000-bpd CDU for repairs at some point, but the time frame has not been fixed, said KY Lin. *SUPPLY: Iraq’s Oil Marketing Company (SOMO) plans to export 3.215 million bpd of Basra crude in June, slightly lower than last month, due to a cut in heavy grade supplies, two sources said.
The June exports include 2.448 million bpd of Basra Light and 767,000 bpd of Basra Heavy, they said. Basra Heavy crude supplies in June were cut by 72,000 bpd, one source said, a move that is likely to underpin the grade’s spot premiums, which have hovered at more than $1.50 a barrel to its official selling price (OSP) for the past couple of months. SOMO will supply full contract volumes to at least three term customers in Asia in June, the sources said.
*WINDOW: A total 32 trades of July Dubai partials took place on Friday, of which half were between Chinaoil and Unipec. Unipec will deliver an al-Shaheen cargo to Chinaoil, the second cargo delivery between the two parties this month. Cash Dubai was assessed at 52 cents below swaps, 10 cents lower than the previous session. Seller-Buyer Price Unipec-Chinaoil 49.50 Totsa-Chinaoil 49.50 Unipec-Chinaoil 49.50 Unipec-Chinaoil 49.50 Totsa-Chinaoil 49.50 Unipec-Chinaoil 49.50 Unipec-Chinaoil 49.50 Unipec-Chinaoil 49.50 Unipec-Chinaoil 49.50 Unipec-Chinaoil 49.50 Unipec-Chinaoil 49.50 PDS-Chinaoil 49.50 Unipec-Chinaoil 49.50 Totsa-Chinaoil 49.50 Unipec-Chinaoil 49.50 PDS-Chinaoil 49.50 Unipec-Chinaoil 49.50 Reliance-Chinaoil 49.50 Unipec-Chinaoil 49.50 Totsa-Mercuria 49.50 Reliance-Chinaoil 49.50 Unipec-Chinaoil 49.50 Reliance-Chinaoil 49.50 Totsa-Mercuria 49.50 PDS-Chinaoil 49.55 Reliance-Chinaoil 49.55 Unipec-Chinaoil 49.51 Totsa-Chinaoil 49.50 Hartree-Chinaoil 49.55 P66-Chinaoil 49.55 Unipec-Chinaoil 49.51 Totsa-Mercuria 49.50
*PRICES ($/BBL) CURRENT PREV SESSION DME OMAN 49.67 49.80 DME OMAN DIFF TO DUBAI -0.35 -0.27 CASH DUBAI 49.50 49.65 *TENDERS COUNTRY/COMPANY GRADE VOL CLOSE (VALID) LOADING DATE **RUSSIA/ONGC s:Sokol 700KB May 17 (May 18) July 10-16 QATAR/QATAR PETROLEUM s:DFC/LSC NA May 16 (May 17) July QATAR/QATAR PETROLEUM s:DFC 500KB/month May 16 (May 17) July 2017-June 2018
*MARKET NEWS OPEC on Thursday sharply raised its forecast for oil supply from non-member countries in 2017 as higher prices encourage U.S. shale drillers to pump more, hampering the producer group’s efforts to clear a glut and support prices by cutting output. The Shanghai Futures Exchange said late on Thursday it plans to launch its crude oil futures contract this year, confirming a Reuters report last month.
Trading in the North Sea crude oil physical market has seen a boost from a growing number of participants, but trader Mercuria warned on Thursday that more financial players meant derivatives could have an unduly large impact on the setting of the dated Brent benchmark price.
Rosneft is struggling to close its $12.9 billion acquisition of India’s Essar Oil Ltd because six of Essar’s Indian creditors have yet to approve the deal, sources close to the talks said. Nigerian workers at U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil Corp have gone on strike in protest over the sacking of workers, oil labour union officials said. For crude prices, oil product cracks and refining margins, please click on the RICs below.
Brent Dubai DME Oman Brent/Dubai EFS PRODUCT CRACKS Fuel oil crack Gasoil crack Naphtha crack Complex refining margins
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
