SINGAPORE: The Asian gasoil differentials remained steady on Monday, while the backwardation widened, supported by spot demand from Vietnam and large purchases by Winson Oil, trade sources said.
Backwardation occurs when prices of cargoes loading in the prompt month is higher than those loading in later months.
Winson Oil bought 8 cargoes out of 9 deals comprising 150,000 barrels each, or a total of 1.2 million barrels, on Monday, they added. It was not immediately clear where the company plans to ship the cargoes to.
Vietnam's top importer Petrolimex bought three cargoes of 35,000 tonnes each of 500ppm sulphur gasoil for December loading at a premium of about 5 to 10 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes, industry sources said.
The cargoes were bought on a free-on-board (FOB) Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore basis, and are to load over Dec. 1 to 5, Dec. 11 to 15 and Dec. 21 to 25.
This is higher than the discount of 5 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes that Petrolimex paid for November cargoes, they added.
Spot demand from Vietnam's Saigon Petro also appeared, with the importer seeking 10,000 tonnes of the fuel for December, traders said.
China has raised the export tax rebate for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to 17 percent effective from Nov. 1, the country's Ministry of Finance said on Friday.
It did not give a comparison.
Traders said that this will likely not have a big impact in the immediate future as state-owned refiners currently do not pay taxes on exports anyway.
In the Gulf, term negotiations are yet to finalise with Bahrain Petroleum Co and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, traders said.
National oil firm Saudi Aramco informed Egyptian authorities that it would halt shipments of petroleum products to Egypt "until further notice", an Egyptian official told Reuters.
The official said Aramco did not give a reason for halting the shipments, but that Egypt had launched tenders to cover its demand for petroleum products in November.
"They did not give us a reason. They only informed the authority about halting shipments of petroleum products until further notice," the official said.
TENDERS:
- Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp has offered 240,000 barrels of 10ppm sulphur gasoil for Dec. 27 to 31 loading from Mailiao. The tender closes on Nov. 9, with same-day validity.
- Vietnam's Saigon Petro is seeking 10,000 tonnes of 500ppm sulphur gasoil for Dec. 20 to 23 delivery into Cat Lai or Dec. 17 to 20 loading from Singapore, Thailand or Malaysia. The tender closes on Nov. 8, with same-day validity.
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