Dubai crude trade volume in Asia hits record high in August
SINGAPORE, August 21, 2015
The number of cargoes traded during a pricing process for Middle East crude exports to Asia hit an all-time high in August after Chinaoil bought another four cargoes on Friday, traders said.
Aggressive trading, with heavy buying by Chinaoil and selling by Unipec, has pushed up Middle East crude prices for Asia, even as other grades are being pressed lower by a global glut.
Trades during the Platts Dubai Market on Close (MoC) process led to the delivery of 58 October-loading cargoes this month, or 29 million barrels, the traders said. This exceeds the previous high of 55 June-loading cargoes traded in April, which was all purchased by Chinaoil, they added.
Traders are concerned that available supplies could be exhausted before August ends. Based on historical transactions, a maximum 74 cargoes can be traded via the MoC system in one month.
In August, Chinaoil, the trading arm of PetroChina Co, bought 55 cargoes of 500,000 barrels each, while Swiss trading company Mercuria purchased three. Of the 58, 19 were Upper Zakum, 37 Oman and two Dubai cargoes.
Unipec, the trading unit of Asia's largest refiner Sinopec , sold more than two-thirds of the cargoes this month. Other sellers included Royal Dutch Shell, Vitol, Reliance Global Energy Services, the trading arm of Indian refiner Reliance Industries, and Gunvor.
On the first day of trade this month, Chinaoil bought a record daily volume of five million barrels from Unipec, more than the volume top exporter Saudi Arabia supplies to Asia each day.
Platts, part of McGraw Hill Financial Inc, competes with Thomson Reuters in providing information to the energy markets. - Reuters
