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REUTERS
Tokyo, July 15: Gulf crude trading was at a standstill in Thursday's early Asian market amid little interest shown in either the few remaining August cargoes nor September cargoes that have yet to be traded in earnest, traders said.
In the wake of a sale of a September Oman crude cargo from a major to a South Korean refiner late last week at a premium of seven cents per barrel above MOG, traders said market direction for September cargoes was still uncertain.
Bids for September Oman which until Wednesday had been heard at a level as high as MOG plus 10 cents appear to have been withdrawn, traders said.
Trading in September Gulf crudes is not expected to begin in earnest until next week.
A few August Abu Dhabi crude cargoes are believed to be in the hands of three sellers. These are a Japanese trading company and two European majors.
Market level for these crudes were hard to define, however, in the absence of firm talk.
Sellers continued to seek a premium of about five cents above ADNOC, but thereappeared to be very little buying interest, traders said.
In the absence of firm spot market talk, traders shifted their energy to chasing the results of a series of tenders.
Indonesia's tender to buy September Asian and West African crudes closed on Wednesday.
Traders were at the same time still waiting to hear the winner of Indonesia's August crude purchase tender.
The validity of India's tender to buy a variety of crude grades for October to March expires on Friday after closing on Wednesday.
It was unclear whether Indonesia had awarded its tender to sell Minas and Duri crude grades for July lifting.
Minas and Duri were both offered twice, in a tender closed on July 9 and one that closed on July 13.
The 250,000 barrel cargo of Minas offered in the first tender was sold to Japanese trader Sumitomo Corp at ICP plus 40 to 45 cents.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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