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Asia crud: sentiment weak, May Gulf grades weigh

TOKYO: Sentiment of Gulf crudes remained weak on Monday as a bulk of uncommited May Gulf crude grades weighed on the market, while Iran told Japanese term buyers it will allocate full contracted volumes of May crude supplies, traders said.

Yet traders said the move was mostly within expectations, but some said it may add more bearish pressure on an already weak market.

They said Qatari crudes, Oman crude, Arab Medium from Banoco, Iraqi Basrah Light for May liftings remained unsold in the market, as buying interest remained at a low ebb, they said.

A South Korean refiner was believed to have sold 600,000 barrels of May Marib Light to a US major at around Dated Brent plus 36 cents.

Some traders said the remaining May gulf cargoes are likely to fetch deeper discounts as sellers were eager to sell cargoes before trade for June starts.

It was not clear how many barrels for May were still unsold in the market, but some traders said around four to five million barrels of Iraqi Basrah Light and about three million barrels of Oman were left uncommitted, they said.

For April lifting, Iran had told Japanese term buyers it would cut its supplies of key crude grades by 12 percent from contracted volumes.

Iran, the second-biggest oil producer in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), opted out of an agreement in late March by nine OPEC members to increase supplies by 1.45 million barrels per day (bpd) or seven percent, relaxing output curbs imposed a year ago. But Iran had said it would boost crude oil exports by about 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) following the OPEC deal.

At a tender by Philippine refiner Petron Corps seeking June Dubai crude, a European refiner was believed to have sold a 600,000 barrels of Dubai crude at OSP plus 23 cents, but this could not be confirmed.

In other crude related news, Indonesian state oil company Pertamina has allocated its affiliates and term buyers about 25,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Minas crude for May lifting, traders said. It allocated 36,000 bpd Duri for May, they said.

The May volumes for Minas were lower than April while the Duri volumes were higher.-Reuters