Middle East Crude

　Spot differentials for November-loading Upper Zakum firmed as end-users in China procured a large chunk of cargoes after curbing spot procurements recently. China International United Petroleum & Chemicals Co (UNIPEC) on Sep 17 procured a total of four cargoes of Upper Zakum. These cargoes were traded at a premium of about $2.10 to Dubai quotes. Apart from UNIPEC, China's Sinochem purchased two cargoes of Upper Zakum. Elsewhere, Aramco Trading was said to have procured two cargoes in the spot market from Hengli Petrochemical. In the market on Sep 18, Shandong Yulong Petrochemical bought four cargoes of November-loading Upper Zakum in total although the prices were unknown. The company was preparing to start operations of its Crude Distillation Unit (with production capacity of 400,000 barrels per day) at petrochemical complex project in China's Shandong Province.

African/European/Russian/American Crude

　Spot differentials for October-loading Sudanese Nile Blend declined sharply. Crack spreads for low sulfur fuel oil in Asia recently deteriorated quickly, which sent the market lower. India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) sold 600,000bbl for Oct 18-20 loading in its October-loading Nile Blend sell tender closed on Sep 16 to European Vitol. It later turned out that the price was at a discount of the $3.00s level to Dated Brent. In the previous September-loading tender by Malaysia's state-owned Petronas, Vitol took one cargo at a discount of 80-90cts to Dated Brent.

Asia Pacific Crude

Spot differentials for Vietnam's Chim Sao for November-loading declined sharply. Vietnam's state-owned PV Oil sold 300,000bbl of Chim Sao for Nov 16-20 loading in its tender closed on Sep 12. Binh Song Refining and Petrochemicals (BSR) won the tender at a premium of about $4.20 to Dated Brent. The price was more than $2.50 lower than the previous October-loading tender. Margins especially for middle distillates in Southeast Asia such as Thailand and Singapore as well as Vietnam were weakening, prompting end-users to lower evaluations for Chim Sao.