Asia Crude-Qatar sells Oct condensates; a tad firmer

Asia Crude-Qatar sells Oct condensates; a tad firmer

Tasweeq sold the DFC cargoes at a discount of between 50 cents and $1.00 a barrel to Dubai quotes.

August 19, 2010 1:49 by Reuters

Qatar sold six to seven cargoes of deodorised field condensate (DFC) for loading in October at slightly stronger differentials on higher naphtha cracks, traders said on Thursday.

Qatar International Petroleum Marketing Co, or Tasweeq, sold the DFC cargoes at a discount of between 50 cents and $1.00 a barrel to Dubai quotes, marginally stronger than a discount between 70 cents and $1.00 fetched for September DFC cargoes it sold last month, they said.

The company also sold three to four cargoes of low sulphur condensate (LSC) for loading in October at a discount of between 80 cents and $1.10 a barrel to Dubai quotes, around the same level as the $1.00-discount fetched for September LSC cargoes it sold, they said.

Buyers of DFC and LSC included oil majors ExxonMobil and Shell, as well as South Korean, Japanese and Indian firms, they added.

Asian naphtha cracks jumped to around $108 a tonne on Wednesday, the highest in nine weeks, on expectations of spot demand in South Korea and fewer spot parcels from the Gulf.

But traders said the high naphtha cracks are not expected to sustain as supplies are ample, although the glut is not as excessive as before.

Tasweeq failed to award a term tender to sell one or two 500,000-barrel cargoes of condensate per month between October 2010 and September 2011, traders have said.

(Reporting by Judy Hua and Florence Tan; Editing by Ramthan Hussain)