The Asia-Pacific crude market remained steady with more cargoes of Malaysia’s Kimanis crude expected to enter the market in July, trade sources said. MALAYSIA Malaysia will export 12 cargoes of Kimanis crude in July, up 2 cargoes from the previous month, trade sources said. Petronas will export four cargoes, similar to the previous month, they said. The allocation to other equity holders was not immediately available. RUSSIA India’s ONGC and ExxonMobil have offered 700,000 barrels each of Sokol crude for loading in July through separate tenders. June-loading Sokol cargoes were ...

A senior official at Iran’s state-owned oil supplier met Chinese buyers this week to ask them to maintain imports after U.S. sanctions kick in, three people familiar with the matter said, but failed to secure guarantees from the world’s biggest consumer of Iranian oil. The sources told Reuters Saeed Khoshrou, director of international affairs at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), held separate meetings in Beijing on Monday with top executives at Chinese oil giant Sinopec’s trading unit and state oil trader Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp to discuss oil supplies and ...

Contrary to the Centre’s plan to bring down coal imports, industries are seen to be sourcing more coal from foreign countries in FY19, thanks to the unresolved issue of inadequate transport mechanism to ferry the fuel from the mines to the manufacturing plants. “Coal import trend is expected to continue as power, cement and steel industries are expected to witness improvement in demand and capacity utilisation,” CARE Ratings said. Though domestic coal production clocked an annual 2.5% increase by producing 688.4 MT in FY18, imports, at 213 MT, grew by ...

There is enough oil supply in the global market to make up for potential fuel disruptions from U.S. oil producer ConocoPhillips’ legal actions against Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, a State Department spokesman said. “The U.S. Department of State remains in contact with our partners in the Caribbean to reduce the risk of supply disruptions,” Vincent Campos, spokesman for the Bureau of Energy Resources at the department said. “There is sufficient oil supply in the global market that countries can access.” The U.S. company said on Tuesday it was far ...

The start of summer in the US traditionally marks the start of the driving season, a period of strong gasoline consumption for the US and a major driver of European exports. However, high imports from Europe since mid-March and high refinery utilization rates could put early pressure on the arbitrage window to the US. Having clocked up 1.58 trillion miles in the first half of 2017, US driving has been increasing for six straight years, according the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration. Due to restrictions applied by the ...

U.S. crude oil exports averaged 1.1 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2017 and 1.6 million b/d so far in 2018, up from less than 0.5 million b/d in 2016. This growth in U.S. crude oil exports happened despite the fact that U.S. Gulf Coast onshore ports cannot fully load Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC), the largest and most economic vessels used for crude oil transportation. Instead, export growth was achieved using smaller and less cost-effective ships. Each VLCC is designed to carry approximately 2 million barrels of crude oil. ...

The volume of U.S. crude oil arriving in Asia is expected to hit a new high in July as Asian refiners sought arbitrage supplies to replace Middle Eastern crude after prices for Gulf grades rose, traders said on Wednesday. U.S. crude arriving in Asia hit an all-time high of close to 25 million barrels in May with cargoes discharging in China, South Korea, Singapore, India and Malaysia, according to trade flows data on Eikon. The volume dips to about 19 million barrels in June, but is set to rebound again ...

The European Union set out to identify “practical solutions” for salvaging the Iran nuclear accord within weeks, as the bloc strives to contain the fallout from President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the plug from the landmark deal. Technical experts from both sides were commissioned to find ways to maintain oil shipments and to protect European companies doing business with Iran, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told reporters in Brussels late on Tuesday. The experts will also propose ways to avert disruptions in air, sea and land transport from ...

Russia’s exports of the medium sweet ESPO Blend crude in June are expected to total 2.4 million mt, down 7.69% from May, according to the latest monthly loading program seen by S&P Global Platts. ESPO Blend’s June program runs from May 30 to July 1 and will comprise 24 cargoes of 100,000 mt each, according to the program. This was similar to the May loading program which runs from April 30 to June 1. The June loading rate will average 533,091 b/d, down from 577,515 b/d scheduled for May. According ...

Indonesia’s state-owned Pertamina plans to import around 11 million barrels of gasoline in June, similar to estimated imports for May, as it continues to stock up during the Ramadan peak demand period, market sources said Wednesday. Pertamina’s gasoline imports for May were estimated at around 10.5 million barrels. Market watchers were unable to provide a breakdown of volumes between the three grades of 88 RON, 92 RON and 95 RON. Pertamina could not be reached for comment. The company late Tuesday issued a tender seeking 1 million barrels of 92 ...

Russia’s Sakhalin II liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant sold a cargo loading on June 27 at a price estimated in the low-to-mid $8 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) range, traders said. The tender closed on May 11. Gazprom’s contract to supply India’s state-owned Gail with 0.5 million tonnes, or eight cargoes, of LNG in 2018/2019 starts from May. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic, editing by Louise Heavens)

Gazprom’s exports to countries outside the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in January-May were up 5.9 percent year-on-year, the Russian gas exporter said on Wednesday. Exports to non-CIS states totalled 78 billion cubic metres, the company said in a statement. Gas output from Jan. 1 to May 15 was up 9.8 percent year-on-year, the company said, totalling 197.8 billion cubic metres. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Writing by Polina Ivanova; Editing by Mark Potter)

Azeri gas exports from the first stage of its giant Shah Deniz field fell by 6.4 percent to 2.391 billion cubic metres (bcm) in the first four months of this year compared with the same period in 2017, the State Statistics Committee said. Gas from Shah Deniz I is exported through the South Caucasus pipeline. Export volumes from Shah Deniz I operated by an international consortium led by BP were 7.314 bcm in 2017. Azerbaijan’s gas exports through all pipelines totalled 8.112 bcm in January-April this year. Azerbaijan plans to ...

Egypt, the world’s biggest wheat importer, garnered just four offers from three companies at a wheat tender that took many traders by surprise, coming amid high end-of-season global prices and the country’s own plentiful ongoing harvest. The lowest offer in state buyer GASC’s tender was $219.90 per tonne free-on-board (FOB) for 60,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat offered by international trader Louis Dreyfus. GASC is expected to announce the results on Tuesday. It is seeking an unspecified amount of wheat for shipment from June 15 to June 25. Traders said they ...

Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture said it would import 17,460 tonnes of feed-quality wheat 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 similar tender that will be ...