RUSSIA

Russian producer Surgutneftegaz has sold two ESPO crude cargoes for end-April to May loading at lower premiums than the previous month, as demand from China slowed during the peak maintenance season, trade sources said.

The cargoes loading on April 30-May 5 and May 3-8 were sold at premiums between $3.20 and $3.30 a barrel to Dubai quotes, they said.

Mercuria might have bought one of the cargoes, they said, while the other cargo likely went to a European oil trader.

ONGC has sold a cargo of Russian Sokol crude to load on May 9-15 at a steady premium from the previous month, two trade sources said.

The 700,000-barrel cargo was sold to Shell at $4.32 a barrel above Dubai quotes, they said.

Russian producer Sakhalin Energy has offered a cargo of Sakhalin Blend crude to load on May 29-June 4 via a tender, trade sources said.

The tender will close on March 21 and will remain valid until a day later.

VIETNAM

Vietnam's PV Oil sold its spot heavy Bach Ho crude cargo to Japan's Idemitsu, traders said on Friday.

A glitch at Idemitsu's Aichi secondary unit was prompting the refiner to seek more sweet crude, they said.

Idemitsu said on Friday that it expects to restart the problem-hit 60,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) residue hydro desulphurisation unit at the Aichi refinery at the end of June.