Possible shortage of heavy crude Widuri

Possible shortage of heavy crude Widuri

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Asia's heavy crude tightened yesterday on
talk that Indonesia's monthly allocations for December could be
lower due to rising domestic demand, traders said.

A parcel of December heavy Indonesian Widuri was sold to a
Japanese trader. The price level was heard to be ICP +70 cents
per barrel.

This is higher that recent Minas trades done at ICP +45 cents.
Widuri usually trades at similar premiums to Minas.

But traders said there were expectations that Cinta and Widuri
monthly allocations in December could be reduced compared to
previous months, prompting some buyers to bid aggressively for
the grades.

But they were uncertain if the December Minas volumes would
also be cut.

Indonesia is due to announce its December crude allocations on
Monday.

In November Indonesia allocated a total of 46,000 barrels-per-
day (bpd) of heavy sweet Widuri and Cinta and 51,000 bpd of
Minas.

Light Asian crude trading remained thin as traders waited for
more definite information on how long Australia's Griffin field
will be shut down.

Griffin operator BHP Petroleum said on Thursday that it
planned to disconnect the Griffin floating production storage and
offtake vessel off Western Australia and move it to a shipyard in
Singapore for repairs.

But BHP was uncertain how long the vessel will be out of
production.

Some traders had said that if the vessel was to be moved
elsewhere to be repaired, then it could take several months
before production would resume.