Asian supply and demand still tight
Energy News
Thu, 1 Jul 1999, 8:39am EDT
Asian Crude Oil Prices Rise With Futures and Robust Demand
Singapore, July 1 (Bloomberg Energy) -- Crude oil prices in
Asia rose today on robust regional demand and surging Brent
futures.
In the spot market, Asian benchmark Tapis rose 65 cents to
$18.55 a barrel, while Indonesian Minas was up 60 cents to $17.40
a barrel. Persian Gulf benchmark Dubai Fateh rose 64 cents to
$16.74 a barrel.
July Tapis swaps were valued at $18.23 a barrel, compared
with $17.60 a barrel yesterday. August Tapis swaps were assessed
at the same price as July.
A trader at Malaysia's Petronas said demand for local
grades, and particularly Tapis was strong. Thailand was
reportedly looking for August Tapis supplies and a Singapore-
based trading company was seen seeking cargoes of Tapis to export
out of the region, possibly to the U.S.
According to the same trader, Malaysian crude supplies were
very limited, with only one spot cargo of Tapis left for August.
Brokers said there was a robust demand for Indonesian Minas
from Japanese utilities and Australian and Chinese buyers.
August Minas supplies remained ''balanced'' and July
supplies were very rare on the market.
Traders said there was also a steady tender demand. Taiwan's
Chinese Petroleum Corp. (CPC) issued a tender to buy supplies of
West African sweet crude oil for August loading. This tender
closes July 3.
CPC also bought ''large amounts'' of Iraqi crude Basrah
Light in its tender to purchase August Persian Gulf sour crude
supplies, a company official said.
Market participants were still awaiting the results of
Indonesia's Pertamina spot tender to purchase August supplies.
They were expecting Pertamina to buy at least one cargo of
Chinese Nanhai and one of Brunei Seriah Light.
According to one trader, there were unconfirmed reports
Pertamina called another spot tender seeking more August delivery
crude barrels, possibly of light sweet grades like Tapis.
August Brent crude futures on the Singapore International
Monetary Exchange settled 68 cents higher at $17.58 a barrel,
lagging last night's surge in western prices, after inventory
reports showed an unexpected decline in U.S. crude oil stockpiles
for the second week in a row, traders said.
Last night, the U.S. Department of Energy reported crude
stockpiles declined 1.7 million barrels to 330.4 million, in the
week ended June 25. This came after a report from the American
Petroleum Institute, showing U.S. crude inventories fell 488,000
barrels to 329.9 million barrels.
Brent futures on the London International Petroleum Exchange
rose as much as 72 cents a barrel yesterday, while West Texas
Intermediate crude futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange
closed 85 cents higher.
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