SINGAPORE- Middle East crude benchmarks edged up on Monday, while traders await Russian producers to offer the remaining ESPO Blend crude cargoes for March-loading.

CHINA: Chinese demand for crude oil is rebounding as independent refiners push to buy before prices climb further from low levels hit late last year, restocking with supplies that will arrive in March and April, trade sources said. 

That appetite from such refiners, often known as "teapots", has driven up spot premiums for oil from Africa, Europe, Russia and Oman, the sources said, with prices for some grades hitting multi-month highs.

TENDERS: CPC Corp has awarded tenders to buy crude loading in March or for delivery in April, trade sources said.

The refiner bought one March-loading Upper Zakum crude cargo at a premium of not more than 5 cents a barrel to the grade's official selling price (OSP), they said.

It also purchased 6 million barrels of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Midland crude at premiums of $1.50 and $2 a barrel to dated Brent on a cost-and-freight basis for delivery in April, they said.

Sri Lanka's Ceypetco has issued a tender to buy a Murban crude cargo for delivery in April.

ASIA-PACIFIC CRUDE: Santos has sold its March-loading cargo of Cooper Basin crude to Vitol at a premium of $5-$6 a barrel to dated Brent, a trader said. The cargo was likely to remain in Australia, traders said.

PTT did not award a tender to buy sweet crude on behalf of IRPC due to high offers. The trader has likely bought arbitrage supplies outside the tender to meet IRPC's demand, traders said.

 

REFINERY

Saudi Aramco plans to invest up to $1.6 billion for a nearly 20 percent stake in South Korean refiner Hyundai Oilbank, expanding its foothold in one of its biggest Asian buyers of crude oil.

Italy's Eni and Austria's OMV have agreed to pay a combined $5.8 billion to take a stake in Abu Dhabi National Oil Company's (ADNOC) refining business and establish a new trading operation owned by the three partners. 

China's largest private refiner Hengli aims to have all the units operational and running at full capacity by end of March, the company said in a statement on its official social media account. 

S-Oil Corp said on Monday that refining margins are expected to improve in 2019, supported by growing diesel demand. The company posted an operating loss of 292 billion won ($261.37 million) in the fourth quarter ended December, compared with an operating profit of 369 billion won from a year earlier. 

 

NEWS

Refining profits for gasoline are crashing around the world as consumption stalls amid a huge wave of new supplies, resulting in record inventories in Asia, America and Europe.

Vietsovpetro, a Vietnam-Russia oil joint venture, has started crude oil production at the Ca Tam field offshore southern Vietnam, Vietnamese state oil firm PetroVietnam said on Monday. 

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude at Midland, Texas, traded in positive territory for first time in over a year on Friday on signs of tightening supplies and anticipated relief for a pipeline bottleneck that has depressed prices for months, traders said. 

Crude production from state-owned oil company Pemex averaged 1.71 million barrels per day (bpd) in December, up 0.8 percent compared to output the previous month, according to company data published on Friday. 

Terminal operator Moda Midstream LLC said on Friday it plans to complete a fivefold increase in crude oil storage capacity at its South Texas export terminal next year, with most of the tanks expected to come online in 2018. 

(Reporting by Florence Tan, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips) ((Florence.Tan@thomsonreuters.com; +65 6870 3497; Reuters Messaging: florence.tan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))