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Singapore: Saudi Aramco and ExxonMobil have offered to sell one cargo each of end-March high-viscosity fuel oil from their joint-venture refinery in Yanbu for a total 170,000-180,000 tonnes, traders said yesterday.
ExxonMobil offered to sell 80,000-90,000 tonnes of 650-centistoke (cst) fuel oil for March 24-26 loading from the Samref facility on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis. The offer closed yesterday and a deal is expected today.
Aramco's parcel, totalling 90,000 tonnes, is for loading from the Red Sea port on March 29-31, free-on-board (FOB) basis. Bids are expected by Friday and are to remain valid for three days.
Traders expect both deals to be concluded at lower prices than Middle East trader FAL Oil's purchase last week at a discount of $4-$5 a tonne to Singapore spot 380-cst quotes, C&F, equivalent to an FOB discount of $13-$14.
"There won't be a lot of demand for high-viscosity barrels by the time the cargoes land in April," a Singapore-based Middle East trader said.
"The arrivals for next month are quite heavy and most are similarly high-viscosity materials."
The Yanbu cargoes are typically blended down to 380-cst for the marine fuels market.
Western inflows for March are estimated at around three million tonnes, the heaviest arrival volumes this year, with most of the flows expected in the second-half of the month.
Higher-than-usual spot volumes have come from the Yanbu refinery this year after Aramco opted not to sell any barrels from the refinery on a long-term basis this year.
Including the two latest cargoes, the two companies will have sold a total of eight parcels, totalling 640,000-720,000 tonnes.
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