Middle East Crude-Dubai premium climbs; Rongsheng buys TMX oil

Middle East crude benchmark Dubai’s spot premium climbed on Tuesday following a flurry of trades that led to the delivery of two cargoes on Platts window.

Chinese refiner Rongsheng Petrochemical 002493.SZ has bought two 550,000-barrel cargoes of Canadian Access Western Blend (AWB) crude via the recently expanded Trans Mountain pipeline (TMX) for September delivery, trade sources said on Tuesday.

The cargoes were sold by Macquarie at a discount of $6-$7 a barrel to ICE Brent in a tender, they added.

AWB is a type of heavy and highly acidic diluted bitumen produced by Canadian Natural Resources and MEG Energy.

Rongsheng bought its first cargo from the TMX pipeline this month.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

Cash Dubai’s premium to swaps rose 15 cents to 81 cents a barrel. Unipec will deliver an August-loading Murban crude to Mercuria, and Hengli will deliver an Upper Zakum crude cargo to Mitsui.

REFINERY

Japan’s second-biggest oil refiner Idemitsu Kosan 5019.T shut the 150,000-barrels-per-day (bpd) crude distillation unit (CDU) at its Hokkaido refinery, northern Japan, on June 22 for scheduled maintenance, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The maintenance is expected to last for a few months, the spokesperson added.

Idemitsu also said its unit Toa Oil restarted a 70,000 bpd sole CDU at the Keihin refinery, near Tokyo, on May 22 after having shut on Dec. 3 last year for a system glitch.

NEWS

Mexican state energy company Pemex is unlikely to produce any commercially viable motor fuels at its new Olmeca refinery before the end of the year, five sources said, despite pressure that it should be ready before the outgoing president’s term ends.

Mitsui & Co 8031.T has started construction of an ammonia plant in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with partners including an Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) unit, it said on Tuesday.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Vijay Kishore)