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Tokyo/Singapore: Abu Dhabi will supply full term crude oil volumes for September, steady to August levels, but its offer of additional barrels ahead of maintenance in October was shunned by buyers, lifters said on Wednesday.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (Adnoc) has notified at least eight Asian term lifters, including four in Japan, that it would supply full contracted volumes of crude for September, sources with refiners said.
Three lifters said they had declined offers of additional cargoes, prompting traders to say Adnoc may store the oil instead to ensure full supplies in October when some fields undergo routine maintenance.
Adnoc will reduce oil output by 150,000 to 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) for 40 days in October and November for maintenance, with the offshore Lower Zakum and Umm Shaif fields being partially shut down, a company official said earlier this month.
The shutdown will cut oil output from the world's fifth-largest oil exporter by up to 7.5 per cent.
Abu Dhabi, the main oil producer for the UAE, had offered extra crude to two Japanese lifters earlier this month ahead of maintenance, but the two lifters did not want them.
"Adnoc mentioned there might be additional barrels in September, but we did not ask for them," a trader with a third lifter said.
Not all lifters were offered additional crude, traders said, and some said Adnoc might have decided not to offer any more extra supplies after an initial tepid response.
The lack of interest in extra crude came on the back of slowing appetite for oil as record-high prices increasingly curb demand in the world's third-biggest oil consumer, traders in Japan said.
Global benchmark US crude prices extended their sharpest drop in a year and half to below $122 a barrel yesterday.
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