China will import record volumes of U.S. oil and is likely to ship more U.S. soy after Beijing signalled to state-run refiners and grains purchasers they should buy more to help ease tensions between the two top economies, trade sources said on Wednesday. China pledged at the weekend to increase imports from its top trading partner to avert a trade war that could damage the global economy. Energy and commodities were high on Washington’s list of products for sale. As the two sides stepped back from a full-blown trade war, ...

Europe’s hunger for corn is giving South Africa a surprising destination to sell more of its record crop. Africa’s top corn grower typically doesn’t export much to the European Union due to the long shipping distance and uncompetitive cost. But last year’s big harvest has cut prices, and should help South Africa ship more to the EU than in the previous six years combined, according to Strategie Grains. The increased trade comes as EU imports surged 41 percent this season amid strong demand for animal feed and cheap grain from ...

China’s state grain stockpiler has returned this week to the U.S. soybean market for the first time since early April, a sign Beijing is preparing to resume purchases as trade tensions between the world’s top two economies ease, two sources said. The renewed interest in the oilseed, used in animal feed, follows Beijing’s pledge at the weekend to buy more U.S. goods from its top trading partner, including agricultural products. China made the pledge to avert a trade war that could damage the global economy. As the two sides stepped ...

Sinopec, Asia’s largest refiner, will boost U.S. crude oil imports to an all-time high as part of efforts by China to reduce its trade deficit with the United States, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday. The company’s trading arm Unipec has bought 16 million barrels, or about 533,000 barrels per day, of U.S. crude to load in June, they said, the largest volume ever to be lifted in a month by the company. “The government has encouraged us to lift more U.S. crude,” one of the ...

Canada is the largest energy trading partner of the United States, based on the combined value of energy exports and imports. Although the value of bilateral energy trade with Canada has varied over the past decade, driven primarily by changes in the prices of oil and natural gas, the overall structure of bilateral energy trade flows has changed relatively little, with the value of U.S. energy imports from Canada consistently exceeding the value of U.S. energy exports to Canada by a large margin. Increasing energy commodity prices in 2017 led ...

Vietnam is considering raising the environment tax levied on oil product imports from July 1, industry sources said Wednesday. The Ministry of Finance has proposed the hike to the country’s prime minister, and it is currently under review, market sources said. “There is a proposal [by the ministry] to raise taxes on the import of all oil products, but it is not confirmed yet,” one source in Vietnam said. Further details of the tax proposal could not be immediately confirmed. Vietnam’s current tax on oil imports is Dong 3,000(13 cents)/liter. ...

Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture said it would import 2,490 tonnes of feed-quality wheat and 415 tonnes of barley for livestock use, via a simultaneous buy and sell (SBS) auction that closed late on Wednesday. The ministry had sought 120,000 tonnes of feed wheat and 200,000 tonnes of feed barley to be loaded by Aug. 31 and arrive in Japan by Oct. 31 in the tender that is usually conducted weekly. It is seeking the same amounts for each grain to be loaded and shipped during the same period in a ...

Venezuelan state-owned PdV is preparing to resume oil supply to Curacao’s fuel distributor Curoil as early as today in the first sign of a breakthrough in a protracted debt-related dispute with US independent ConocoPhillips. Lawyers for PdV and ConocoPhillips met yesterday in the Dutch-controlled island to hammer out execution of an 18 May local court order that partially lifted liens that the US firm had levied on PdV’s local assets in a bid to collect a $2bn arbitration award. The court decision and a parallel ruling in the Dutch island ...

Mozambique Imopetro has received up to nine offers in response to its buy tender for 685,500 mt of 50 ppm gasoil, 31,500 mt of jet fuel and 212,000 mt of 93 RON gasoline for delivery over July-December 2018, traders said Wednesday. The offers ranged from as low as $30.70/mt to $65.70/mt to the weighted average premium of the Mean of Platts Arab Gulf assessments. The lowest offers came from European trader Trafigura, followed by Sahara, Totsa and August Energy. The next lowest offer was at the weighted average premium of ...

Poland’s state-run gas firm PGNiG expects to double imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) this year from the 1.7 billion cubic metres (bcm) imported in 2017, PGNiG deputy head Maciej Wozniak said on Wednesday. PGNiG, the dominant gas firm in Poland, still imports most of the gas it sells from the Russia’s Gazprom, via pipeline. But it is seeking to reduce reliance on Russia. The company signed long-term agreement in 2009 with Qatargas for LNG supplies that will run until 2034 and signed a mid-term deal in November for LNG ...

Indonesian Pertamina has turned to buying gasoline from the spot market as seasonal demand kicks in, traders said on Wednesday. Asia’s top gasoline importer has bought some but not all of the 1.73 million barrels of gasoline it was seeking for June delivery through two spot tenders. The details of the total volume bought could not be confirmed but Pertamina could have paid a discount of $1.50 to $2.00 a barrel for 88-octane grade and a premium of $1 a barrel for 92-octane grade. Pertamina has term contracts with several ...

China’s natural gas imports, which currently account for more than 30 percent of domestic consumption, will continue to rise and boost Sino-U.S. energy trade while changing the global market pattern, experts said. The nation’s growing demand for natural gas, under a policy to replace polluting coal with clean natural gas to combat air pollution, is set to attract more energy majors worldwide to meet the demand, while a more diversified and flexible natural gas import channel will also help ensure national energy security, said Li Li, research director at energy ...

The UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Co has sealed the term contracts for the three grades of naphtha supplied on a term basis over July 2018 to June 2019 at higher premiums than for the January-December 2018 cycle or the cycle a year ago, market sources said Tuesday. ADNOC has concluded the term deal with buyers at a premium of $22/mt for splitter naphtha and low sulfur naphtha from Ruwais Refinery West, and a premium of $25/mt for paraffinic naphtha and $23/mt for low sulfur naphtha from Ruwais Refinery East, ...

Indian refiners could offer Iran some respite at least for the next few quarters as the South Asian crude oil importers are keen to adhere to their term supply contract obligations with the Persian Gulf producer, undeterred by Washington’s efforts to restrain Tehran’s oil sales. The US’ re-imposition of sanctions on Iran has exerted little impact on the trade flows between India and the OPEC producer so far. India’s state-run Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd., for one, is set to receive its regular monthly term crude oil cargo from National Iranian ...

U.S. refiner Valero Energy Corp this year boosted its imports of Venezuelan crude ahead of U.S. sanctions over the country’s disputed presidential election and as other customers received less of the OPEC-member’s exports, according to Thomson Reuters trade flows data. Venezuelan oil production has tumbled to a multi-decade low this year, cutting shipments to buyers in the United States and elsewhere and worsening a severe economic recession. Its crude exports averaged 1.19 million barrels per day (bpd) in the January-April period, 28 percent less than the same period in 2017. ...