Crude MOC: Sour crude complex steady; Asian buying continues to stutter

London — Benchmark cash Dubai premium against Dubai futures rose marginally at the Asian close March 19, even as the spot market faces pressure from lackluster buying interest in Asia for sour crude grades.

S&P Global Platts assessed May cash Dubai at a premium of 95 cents/b over the same-month Dubai futures at the 4.30pm Singapore close on March 19, up 1 cent/b from the previous day's close.

May cash Oman was assessed at a premium of $1.10/b over same-month Dubai futures, up 11 cents/b from the previous day's close.

Asian refineries have almost completed their procurement activities for May-loading cargoes, sources said, as refinery turnarounds have dampened their feedstock requirements.

Additionally, a supply glut of West African unsold crude could also further divert demand away from sour crude grades, according to market sources.

"China buying is a concern as they may be buying Iranian crude, and there are lots of leftover West African [crude] in the market, making it oversupplied," a crude oil trader based in Singapore said.

A weakening sour complex continues to pressure spot differentials, which have slipped into discounted territory amid negligible buying activity.

Taiwan's CPC was heard to have purchased a 500,000-barrel cargo of May-loading Qatar Land crude at a discount of around 20 cents/b to the grade's OSP.

Traders await the results of a tender from Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemicals seeking 1 million-2 million barrels of May-delivery sour crude as well as a tender issued by India's MRPL seeking crude for May loading.

On March 19, GS Caltex offered 500,000 barrels of Murban crude in the Platts Market on Close assessment process loading from FOB Fujairah/Jebel Dhanna for May 1-27. GS Caltex lowered the offer from OSP plus 20 cents/b to OSP plus 13 cents/b at the end of the MOC process but did not attract any buying interest.

The Platts Market on Close assessment process also saw a total of six May Dubai partials of 25,000-barrels and six Oman partials traded.

The Dubai partials were traded with Vitol, Phillips 66, Unipec and Total on the sell side and Petrochina and Koch on the buy side.

All the Oman partials were traded with Unipec on the sell side and PetroChina on the buy side.

Unipec declared a May-loading cargo of Oman crude to Petrochina following the convergence of 20 partials of cash Oman.