Asia-Pacific crude: More supply may weigh

[SINGAPORE] The Asia-Pacific crude market could come under pressure amid expectations of higher supply and weak refinery demand for November-loading cargoes.

Indonesia's Pertamina was expected to issue a tender to sell November supply of its light sweet Banyu Urip grade for the first time since June following maintenance at the field.

Operator ExxonMobil began ramping up production at the field in the second quarter, targeting peak output later this year of more than 200,000 barrels per day (bpd), adding to an already oversupplied market.

Pertamina last sold a cargo of Banyu Urip that loaded in June to Thailand's PTT via a tender, Reuters data showed. This month, the company brought a cargo to its Cilacap refinery, according to Reuters shiptracking data.

In Malaysia, five cargoes of Kimanis grade were due to load in November, a trader said, steady from the previous month, when production at the field would ramp up following maintenance.

Petronas lowered the price factor for Malaysian Crude Oil (MCO) for September by 60 cents from the previous month to $3.30 per barrel, the narrowest premium to Brent since a new official selling price was introduced in January 2014.

While the outlook for November-loading regional grades remained bearish, lighter grades may find some support from still robust gasoline margins, one trader said.

Japanese commercial crude oil inventories fell 7 percent in the week to Sept 12 to 15.03 million kilolitres, 3 percent below the level at the same time last year, statistics released by the Petroleum Association of Japan (PAJ) showed.

CEFC China Energy has signed a preliminary agreement with a state energy company to provide oil storage for 12.6 million barrels of commercial state crude reserves, two senior sources at the privately-held CEFC China said.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday he would travel shortly to seek support for his push for a summit between Opec and non-Opec producers on lower oil prices.

US senators who want to reverse the ban on oil exports are struggling to find wide legislation to attach their bill to, a sign that their effort to overturn the trade restriction could face difficulties.

REUTERS