Fitch Solutions maintains its forecast for an average coking coal price of $195/t for this year, stating that prices will remain elevated, with strong demand from China’s steel sector, as US–China relations continue to deteriorate and the probability rises of further economic support from the Chinese government towards domestic industries. On the supply side, the consultancy company expects production misses from Australia to keep the coking coal market tight in the coming quarters as large diversified miners lose their appetite for mining coal. “Although we are more positive on coking ...

Chinese state-owned power utilities Guangdong Energy Group and Shenzhen Energy Group received their first jointly purchased LNG cargo at the Dapeng LNG terminal in Shenzhen city on Wednesday, Guangdong Energy said in a statement on its website Thursday. The delivery of the 65,000 mt LNG cargo at the CNOOC-operated Dapeng LNG terminal in southern Guangdong province reflects China’s plans to introduce market reforms in the gas sector including the liberalization of the gas market and opening up of infrastructure access for smaller downstream users. Guangdong Energy and Shenzhen Energy expect ...

Japan’s third largest refiner Cosmo Oil will halt the supply of 1.0% sulfur A-fuel oil in the domestic rack and waterborne markets from as early as September, when it starts to supply bunker fuels that comply with the International Maritime Organization’s sulfur limit rule, a company official told S&P Global Platts. The company official with parent Cosmo Energy Holdings, however, declined to elaborate on the matter. Cosmo Oil holds about a 13% share of A-fuel oil supply in Japan. However, market participants said that Cosmo Oil’s move is related to ...

Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, plans to cut wheat exports in the new 2019/20 marketing season starting July 1 by 1 million tonnes due to higher domestic demand, Deputy Agriculture Minister Oksana Lut said on Thursday. Russia will be able to export 45 million tonnes of grains in the 2019/20 season, including 36 million tonnes of wheat, Lut told a gathering of Russian grain exporters. Russia is expected to export 44 million tonnes of grains, including 37 million tonnes of wheat, in the current 2018/19 season, she added. “Wheat ...

Some Japanese refiners have stepped up imports of crude from Ecuador because of the need to replace Iranian oil, with a fully-laden VLCC arriving in Tokyo Bay in the coming days. Japanese refiner Showa Shell will receive the Ecuadorian oil cargo on the VLCC Yuan Hua Hu around Sunday at its 70,000 b/d Keihin refinery in Kawasaki, Tokyo Bay, industry sources said Friday. A spokesman for Idemitsu-Showa Shell declined to comment. This will be Japan’s second intake of Ecuadorian crude oil in May, taking the total volume to about 2.7 ...

Russia plans to take back around 1 million tons of contaminated oil from Belarus, cleaning up the Druzhba export pipeline section leading to Poland and Germany, four industry sources familiar with the plan told Reuters. The plan was discussed at talks in Warsaw on Thursday between Russian, Belarussian and European companies. Another roughly 1 million tons stuck in Poland and Germany will be left there to be dealt with by these countries, the sources said. “The Russians are open to agreeing to take back the polluted oil from the Belarus ...

Việt Nam’s self-sufficiency for crude oil could come to an end due to exploitation that could turn the country into a net importer of crude oil for the first time, experts warned. According to analysts from the Fitch Solutions Macro Research, crude oil production in Việt Nam would continue to drop over the coming years, averaging annual declines of 4-5 per cent over the next 10 years, as offshore reserves fell and investment in significant new projects slowed. Data from the General Statistics Office showed the country produced some 247,000 ...

Azerbaijan’s only oil refinery plans to import 110,000 tonnes of A-92 petrol in October while it halts production for a month for routine maintenance, state energy company SOCAR’s vice president told Reuters. The refinery, which is owned by SOCAR, will halt production from Oct 1. The company’s petrochemicals unit, Azerkhimia, will also halt production for 40 days starting Oct 1. Routine maintenance at the refinery was also conducted last year. “It’s not ruled out that purchases (of A-92 petrol) would be made from Russia and Turkmenistan, although it will depend ...

Algeria’s government is taking steps to tighten the import of cereals as it seeks to cope with a fall in foreign exchange reserves, state news agency APS reported on Thursday. Algeria, one of the world’s largest grain importers, saw the value of its purchases of cereals reach $3.1 billion in 2018, a 11.55 percent rise from the previous year. France is Algeria’s main soft wheat supplier. The measure to cut spending will also include milk imports, APS said, citing Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui’s office. Total spending on cereals and milk ...

US net export sales of corn for both old crop and new crop for the current and next marketing year totaled 625,959 mt in the week ended May 16, down 1.2% from the previous week, Department of Agriculture data showed Thursday. Of that total, 442,080 mt was for the current 2018-19 marketing year or the old crop, and 183,879 mt were for the next 2019-20 marketing year, or the new crop, the weekly export sales report data showed. Market expectations for the net export sales total were between 250,000 mt ...

US net export sales of wheat slid 26.3% on week to 393,247 mt for the week-ended May 16, Department of Agriculture data showed. Of the total net export sales, 344,852 mt was for the 2019-20 marketing year starting June, or the new crop, and 48,395 mt was for the 2018-19 marketing year, or the old crop. While net export sales for the new crop were lower by 17.8% on week, the old crop net export sales fell 57.7% in the biggest weekly drop for the marketing year. Net sales to ...

Venezuela has increased oil supplies to ally Cuba in May four-fold as US sanctions severely limit exports to other countries, PDVSA documents show. According to the documents, seen by S&P Global Platts Thursday, state-owned PDVSA exported 1.416 million barrels of combined crude and products in May to Cuba’s state Cubametales, up from 355,000 barrels in April. PDVSA sold 646,000 barrels of diluted crude oil (DCO) at Dated Brent minus $9.60/b to Cubametales, which exports and imports metals, fuels and lubricants, the documents show. PDVSA also sold 200,000 barrels of natural ...

Russia’s Rosneft issued a spot tender to sell 80,000 tonnes of Siberian Light crude oil for loading from the Black Sea’s Novorossiisk on June 20-30, traders said. The tender closes on May 24 at 1400 Moscow time (1100 GMT), they added. Rosneft doesn’t normally export cargoes of sweet Siberian Light as it sends its share of light crude oil production in West Siberia to its refineries. The full Urals and Siberian Light crude oil loading plan from Novorossiisk port for June is expected to be released on Friday, traders said. ...

South Korea’s crude imports from Iran surged 24.5% year on year in April ahead of the May expiry of its US sanctions waiver, while imports from the US jumped more than five times, data released by Korea National Oil Corp. Thursday showed. The country received 12.466 million barrels of Iranian crude in April, up from 10.011 million barrels a year earlier, the data showed. The shipments made Iran the second-biggest crude supplier to South Korea, overtaking Kuwait and Iraq. All the shipments from Iran were South Pars condensate purchased by ...

Japan’s customs-cleared crude oil imports rose 4.9pc in April from the same month a year earlier, the country’s Ministry of Finance said. Japan, the world’s fourth-biggest crude buyer, imported 3.3 million barrels per day (15.76 million kilolitres) of crude oil last month, the preliminary data showed. Japan’s imports of liquefied natural gas totalled 5.627 million tonnes last month, up 0.3pc from a year earlier. Imports of thermal coal for power generation declined 2.5pc in April to 8.505 million tonnes, the data showed. The following table provides preliminary breakdown of energy ...