Asian crude prices firmer

Asian crude prices firmer

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Heavy crude prices in Asia were talked firmer yesterday, following official news that Indonesia had cut its export allocations for July, traders said.

"Cinta and Widuri will definitely be stronger, there are no more spot supplies left," said a Japanese trader.

"Minas will remain firm, but maybe will not move up so much because there are still some barrels on offer," he added.

Traders said state-owned Pertamina alloted its term customers and two affiliates PPT and Kipco their July volumes on Monday, with total allocations for Minas heard to be between 32-35,000 barrels-per-day (bpd), but could not be confirmed.

In June, Pertamina allocated 40,000 bpd of Minas.

Cinta volumes for July were heard to be similar to June at 9,000 bpd, but Widuri volumes were heard to have been cut to 11,000 bpd from 15,000 bpd in June.

The last trades of Widuri and Cinta were done around ICP +15/20 cents per barrel, with the next trades likely to be higher, traders said.

But they expected Minas premiums to continue hovering around the 10/11 cents level to ICP, in line with the last trades done last week.