Asian crude prices inch higher before OPEC meet
Asian crude prices inch higher before OPEC meet
SINGAPORE (Agencies): Crude oil prices in Asia inched higher from late New York yesterday with all attention fixed on OPEC's ministerial meeting starting today, traders said.
Prompt crude price on NYMEX after hours trading system ACCESS was at US$19.98 per barrel, up 13 U.S. cents from New York.
Cash July Brent was nationally pegged at $17.95/18.05, up 10 cents from morning levels. On SIMEX, it was trading around $17.97 against its previous close on the IPE at $17.92.
Reuters reported that Brent/Dubai spread were steady, with August seen around $1.40. Traders said the prevailing spreads continued to make Mideast grades highly competitive against other supplies.
Endusers' interest for Dubai stayed strong as many are scheduled to emerge from their refinery maintenance after July. A major was seen actively bidding July/August Dubai spread at 75 cents, no offers were seen.
Interest for July Oman thinned, with premiums seen around five cents over the official selling price. Chinese appetite for the crude in July was said satiated, after it bought four cargoes in the spot market and two on term basis. It also absorbed two cargoes of African Cabinda.
A relatively stable diesel market in Singapore continued to underpin regional light sweet grades such as Tapis.
However, traders said a Thai refiner bought 600,000 barrels of July lifting Tapis at an attractive price of APPI Tapis plus about 75 cents cost and freight basis. They were surprised by the award given prevailing spot offers were at 65-70 cents premium on a free-on-board basis. Freight between Malaysia and Thailand was estimated at 35-40 cents per barrel.
Outlook for Indonesian Minas hinged on arbitrage into the USWC and Japan's weather. According to latest weather report, Japan's summer is forecast to be cool. July Minas was offered at 40-45 cents premium to ICP.
OPEC
Meanwhile, Nigerian oil Minister Dan Etete said in Vienna yesterday that OPEC (the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) will find a solution to cope with the return of Iraqi oil to the export market.
Speaking to journalists shortly before a meeting of OPEC's market monitoring committee, he said: "We will accommodate Iraq."
The solution envisaged within OPEC was to hold the production quotas for the 11 members without any changes while allowing Iraq to sell 700,000 barrels per day under an agreement with the United Nations.
"We are not going to raise the OPEC ceiling because of Iraq," he said.
Ministers gathered here for an OPEC ministerial conference beginning today.
The president of OPEC, Algerian Minister Ammar Makhloufi and the secretary general, Rilwanu Lukman of Nigeria, had a long meeting with the Venezuelan Energy Minister Erwin Arrieta yesterday.