Several spot cargoes of Murban crude for March-lifting were still available on Monday as traders waited for the March term allocations of Abu Dhabi grades, while most other Middle East grades had been sold, traders said. Four or five March Murban cargoes, mostly held by European majors, remained unsold, they said.
But spot differentials for Murban remained supported as traders expected end-users to pick up some of the remaining March cargoes after Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) releases its term allocations for the month, traders said.
Term buyers will get ADNOC's March volumes as early as Tuesday, a trader said.
"Some end-users will buy some (March) Murban spot cargoes later this week, but we don't know how many (they would want to buy)," the trader said. "It depends on how much additional supplies ADNOC will provide." On Monday, March-lifting Murban was assessed at between parity and a 10-cent premium to its official selling price (OSP) set by ADNOC, stable from Friday. On the Asia-Pacific market, Malaysia's Petronas was still offering two March-lifting Tapis cargoes at a premium of $1.60 a barrel to Tapis APPI. It was also offering Bintulu crude at a $1.30-a-barrel premium to Tapis APPI.
Traders were awaiting the results of a tender by Indonesia's BPMIGAS to sell Duri crude and Senipah condensate.
The highest bids for Duri crude were around a premium of 90 cents a barrel to the Indonesia Crude Price (ICP), traders said. The number of bidders were not immediately available.
BPMIGAS received bids at around a 90-cent premium to the Senipah condensate ICP, they added. BPMIGAS had tendered to sell 260,000 barrels a month of Senipah condensate and 200,000 barrels a month of heavy sweet Duri crude for February to July.
Taiwan's Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC) has bought 660,000 barrels of Iranian South Pars sour condensate in its tender for March condensate, a company source said on Monday. The source declined to comment on the seller and price fetched. Shell and the National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) are the two main sellers of the grade.
Kenya's Mombasa refinery is seeking Abu Dhabi's Murban crude and Banoco Arab Medium for March arrival in its regular monthly tender, traders said.