Updates from July, 2013
• Japan, S Korea bunker fuel premiums fall $10-15/mt on ample supply.
• Trading activity in South Korea was subdued, but demand was still expected from buyers that have yet to fully cover for supplies arriving over first-half August.
• South Korea produced 2625 MT of Greases in April 2013.
• Korean consortium wins Turkmenistan refinery order
Updates from July, 2013
• Thailand imported 24394 MT of Base Oil in May 2013.
• Thailand Imports of Base Oil from Singapore comprises 52% of its total import during May 2013.
• Thailand’s Koh Samet oil spill – Oil spill blackens Thailand’s beaches.
• An oil spill that leaked from a pipeline has reached a popular tourist island in Thailand’s eastern sea despite continuous attempts to clean it up over the weekend.
Updates from July, 2013
• Base Oil Group I SN-150/500/ BS-150 Singapore price oscillating in the price range of USD 1025 – 1030/1050 – 1060/1110 -1130PMT
• Oil explorer Rex International Oil aim to raise more than S$85 million in Catalist listing.
• Singapore’s Hin Leong bets on emerging Asia’s thirst for oil – Oil trader Hin Leong is blazing ahead with ambitious investments into some of Asia’s frontier markets. The group’s chairman O.K. Lim talks to Reuters about his plans for Myanmar and East Timor.
Updates from July, 2013
• China’s biggest offshore oil-and-gas producer Cnooc Ltd. (CEO) set a conservative crude oil and natural gas output target for 2013 but said it was boosting capital expenditure by up to 52% as it seeks to expand in the country and abroad.
• The Shengli opencast coal mine in Xilin Hot, Inner Mongolia. China’s five north-western provinces aim to increase coal production by 620m tonnes by 2015.
Updates from July, 2013
• Germany Lubricants export up by 15% in May 2013, as compared to same period last year i.e. May 2012.
• Germany Lubricants imports decreased during May 2013.
• Germany Lubricants consumption decreased by 6% in May 2013 as compared to previous month consumption.
Updates from July, 2013
• Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) has successfully completed another production testing at its exploration well Adam X-1, located in district Sanghar, Sindh on Friday. • UK firm to help drill Pakistan’s oil and gas – UK-based exploration firm Orion Energy and Pakistan Petroleum have agreed to work together to develop the offshore oil and gas potential of Pakistan.
• India’s Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has announced that Saudi Aramco has awarded it a contract worth US$300mn to build a gas plant in Saudi Arabia. The plant, to be built for Midyan Gas Fields, will have a daily capacity to process 2.1mn standard cubic metres of gas and 4,500 barrels of condensate, the company said.
• India’s state-controlled ONGC has a tender to sell 35,000t of naphtha for 30-31 July loading from Hazira. The tender closes on 3 July with a single day’s validity. ONGC also sold through a tender 35,000t of naphtha, possibly to BP, for 11-12 July loading from Mumbai a $23-24/t premium to Mopag. ONGC previously sold a similar cargo to Shell at a slightly higher premium of around $25-26/t to Mopag for 4-5 June loading from Mumbai.
• Higher exports from India pushed the west coast India naphtha premium down to $24/t on 1 July from $26/t last week.
• Indian Rupee downfall takes toll on Base Oil prices of State Oil PSU’s, hefty hike announced effective July 1 2013.
• Base Oil N-60/70/TOBS/SN-70/SN-90/HVI grades imports of India comprises 42% of its total imports during May 2013.
• Base Oil N-60/70/TOBS/SN-70/SN-90/HVI grades imports of India comprises 40% of its total imports during November 2012.
• Domestic prices rose in India last week for the third time in June. State-controlled refiners and fuel marketers IOC, HPCL and BPCL lifted gasoline prices by 1.85 rupees/litre ($0.031/l) excluding state levies, on the back of a weaker Indian rupee and steeper global benchmark prices. The retail gasoline price is now about Rs68.60/l in New Delhi, up by about 8pc from early June. The frequent increases in gasoline retail prices could hit demand, with this set to be reflected in official consumption numbers for June that are expected by the end of July.
Updates from July, 2013
• Shipping fixtures showed more cargoes staying within the region, although trading firms with supply commitments to Europe and that have locked in freight at lower rates continued to fix loadings on vessels bound for Europe.
• The backwardation in the Ice gasoil market weakened, leaving little incentive to store jet fuel in Europe. Air travel demand in Europe has risen with the onset of the summer travel season but is mostly in line with expectations, with trading firms having already met the bulk of requirements. Weak European demand means spot cargoes from the Mideast Gulf are likely to stay within the region.
• Naphtha buyers were able to resist higher premiums as persistently heavy arbitrage inflows from Europe weighed on the market.
• Supplies were ample for June and early-July loading from Europe and the Mediterranean, with the arbitrage to North America having been shut for more than a month amid high stocks in the US. Stocks in independent storage in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) hub fell over the week by about 89,000t, or 11.3pc, to 699,000t as of 27 June. But this was still about 76,000t, or 12pc, higher than 623,000t in the same week last year, according to Dutch consultancy PJK International. Arbitrage opportunities from the US were limited amid weak demand. Gasoline inventories in the country rose unexpectedly to 225.4mn bl in the week to 21 June, up by 3.7mn bl from a week earlier, statistics from US government agency EIA showed.
• Base Oil Group I Prices FOB Europe export prices knocked down as demand weakens.
• Spot cargo bookings from Europe and the Mediterranean to the US remain very thin, with US stocks 20mn bl higher than a year earlier and more than 5pc above the five-year average. Demand remains low across Europe, with the latest data from the UK government indicating that gasoline demand dropped by nearly 10pc in the first quarter of 2013 from a year earlier.
Update Insights from July, 2013
• Canada’s economy expands despite oil and gas slowdown
• Serinus Energy Inc: Ukraine-NM-3 Well Tests Oil and Gas-Potentially Opening Up a New Play in the North Makeevskoye Exploration Licence.
• Vermilion Energy Inc. (TSX:VET) saw sharply higher earnings in the second quarter of $106.2 million, or $1.05 per share.
Updates from July, 2013
• Base Oil SN 150 FOB United States prices down in July 2013.
• USA refiners to hike Paraffinic & Napthenic Base Oil prices in the range of 15 – 25 cents per gallon.
• RIL has sold two 55,000t cargoes for loading this month, in contrast to last year when strong gasoline demand in the US prompted the firm to skip naphtha exports altogether in July.
• US Gulf Coast gasoline stocks are oversupplied, keeping the arbitrage from Europe firmly shut and reducing European demand for naphtha that would otherwise have been diverted into the gasoline pool.
• BS 150 FOB USA prices surge up by 4% in July 2013 as compared to January 2013 price.
Updates from July, 2013
• Dana Gas has announced that it has discovered gas at an onshore test well on the West El Manzala concession in the Nile Delta, Egypt – The Begonia-1 discovery well encountered 15 metres of net pay in a good quality sandstone reservoir of the Lower Abu Madi Formation. On test, the formation produced 266,178 standard cubic metres of gas with 133 barrel condensate.
• Global oil prices of both Brent and WTI indices have remained above US$100 per barrel on the back of Egypt’s political tensions.
• Egypt’s oil sector projects face ongoing uncertainty – Egypt remains a short-term project risk despite Mohamed Mursi’s removal.