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.