SINGAPORE, June 20 (Reuters) - The Asia-Pacific crude market weakened on Wednesday with differentials for Vietnamese crude oil grades falling, though a potential slowdown on arbitrage volumes could stem price losses.
ARBITRAGE
- While regional crude oil grades have been pressured by arbitrage volumes coming in from the United States into Asia, the flow of cargoes could soon slow, a Singapore-based oil trader said.
The price spread between West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude and Brent has narrowed to about $10 a barrel from more than $11 a barrel earlier in the month while premiums for U.S. grades have increased, he added.
This has shut the arbitrage for U.S. cargoes to head east, he added.
For instance, U.S. coastal grade Light Louisiana Sweet (LLS) climbed to its strongest differential since January 2014 on Tuesday.
VIETNAM
- Vietnam's PV Oil has offered 200,000 barrels of Rang Dong crude oil for loading over Aug. 27 to Sept. 2, traders said.
The tender closes on June 20 and is valid until June 22. The company last sold a term tender for 6,700 barrels-per-day (bpd) of the crude oil grade for loading over April to September to domestic refiner Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical at a premium of $2.70 to $3 a barrel to dated Brent.
CRU/TENDA - Malaysia's Petronas has offered 300,000 barrels of Bunga Orkid for Aug. 9 to 15 loading in a tender that closes on June 22 and is valid until June 25.
Vietnam's PV Oil last sold a July 12-18 loading cargo of the Vietnamese grade at a premium of $2.50 to $3 a barrel to dated Brent.
- PV Oil likely sold 300,00 barrels of Te Giac Trang to Unipec at a premium of $1 to $1.50 a barrel to dated Brent, traders said, though this could not immediately be confirmed.
It last sold 10,000 bpd of the crude oil to Binh Son at a premium of about $3 to $3.50 a barrel to dated Brent, traders have said.
BRENT-DUBAI EFS
- Brent's premium to Dubai swaps DUB-EFS-1M was at $3.91 per barrel for August.
NEWS
- Saudi Arabia is struggling to reach a unified position with fellow Gulf crude producers on the need to raise oil output, sources familiar with the talks said on Wednesday, adding to complications ahead of an OPEC meeting this week.
- China's proposed tariffs on U.S. petroleum imports, part of a mounting trade war between the two countries, would crimp sales to the shale industry's largest customer, adding new pressure on U.S. crude prices, energy executives and analysts said in interviews this week.
- Libya has lost some 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil production in recent days because of militant attacks at the Ras Lanuf and Es Sider ports, the head of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on Tuesday.
- Global energy trader Vitol kicked off the planned A$5 billion ($3.7 billion) float of its Australian refinery and fuel supply network Viva Energy on Wednesday, in what would be the country's biggest initial public offering in four years.
- Major U.S. energy companies including Plains All American Pipeline, Hess Corp and Kinder Morgan Inc are among many seeking exemptions from steel-import tariffs as the United States ratchets up trade tensions with exporters including China, Canada and Mexico.
- Spain's Repsol has hired Malta-flagged suezmax Mabrouk to ship the first export parcel of Pars oil produced from West Karoun fields in southwest Iran, sources and shipping data in Thomson Reuters Eikon showed.
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