The Middle East crude market for June looks to gather steam over the next few days with many players back in the office after a holiday weekend, traders said on Tuesday, with sentiment for heavier crudes weaker than last month. Traders on the Asia-Pacific crude market on Tuesday awaited the results of a slew of tenders to provide more market direction for the new June trading month.
June-loading Qatar Marine crude was assessed at a premium of 20 cents to QP, one trader said, but another saw the medium heavy grade closer to a 10-cent premium. May-loading Qatar Marine traded at up to a 50 cent premium, but sentiment has fallen since then after Qatar hiked the grade's discount to Dubai by 50 cents a barrel, and as fuel oil-rich crudes have taken a hit from weaker fuel oil crack spreads.
One or two cargoes of Australian light sweet Cossack crude look to be available for loading in June, a trader said, after only one cargo was available for May. Last month, the sole May-loading Cossack cargo was sold around a $1.00 discount to Tapis APPI.
Taiwan's CPC Corp has issued a tender to buy 300,000 to 600,000 barrels of June-arrival heavy sweet crude, a company source said. Indonesia's Pertamina, one of the region's largest buyers of Asian crudes through spot tenders, will close its monthly tender for June-arrival crude later on Tuesday.
Iran has cut its official selling prices for May-loading crude to Asia in line with expectations, traders said. It cut its Iran Light prices to Asia by 10 cents from April to a premium of $1.10 a barrel to Oman-Dubai, they said. The May Brent-Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS) was valued at $1.10 a barrel, down 35 cents from late on Monday.
Front-month ICE Brent crude for May delivery was down 43 cents at $51.71 a barrel by 0526 GMT, extending a fall from the previous day after the International Energy Agency cut its demand forecast on expectations of another rise in US crude stocks. Aramco delays Ras Tanura refinery expansion Japan power generation logs record March fall Oil fa lls below $50 after IEA forecast.