AMSTERDAM: According to a report recently published by Reuters, Royal Dutch Shell plc RDS.A has bought a shipment of Malaysian Bintulu condensate.
Per Thomson Reuters Trade Flows data, the cargo which is presently sailing to New Orleans, LA, is possibly the first U.S. import of such crude. Per the latest data from the Energy Information Administration, no U.S. imports of Malaysian crude took place during Feb 2010 to 2015.
Per reports, a medium-range vessel – The Polaris – loaded 200,000 barrels of the condensate at Malaysia’s Bintulu terminal in early February, prior to stopping at Singapore’s Jurong Port to collect another parcel.
According to Reuters’ vessel tracking data show, the cargo sailed west from Jurong in late February toward the U.S., around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. However, no details were disclosed by Royal Dutch Shell. The Polaris is transferring about 300,000 barrels of product, which is half the size of a typical Aframax cargo.
U.S. oil imports from Malaysia are uncommon. Therefore, the market sources were naturally perplexed about the economic sense of the comparatively small vessel undertaking the month-long journey.
According to Reuters data, the price of a trip from Singapore to the U.S. Gulf Coast dropped to approximately 54% of the World Scale rate in last week of February, from 119% of the flat rate in early January, potentially opening an arbitrage to the U.S.
The aforesaid condensate, which is produced by Malaysian state oil company Petronas, has a gravity of about 64 API degrees and is often mixed with Bintulu light crude for exports.
