Americas crude:Mars shut-in boosts offers for imports

摘要

The shut-in of the Shell-operated Mars crude platform has lifted offers in foreign sour crudes that often compete with Mars crude in the US domestic market,industry sources said Monday.Prices in grades such as Iraqi Basrah have been talked higher,"but people are very cautious until they understand the extent of the Mars problem," said one player.A refiner was heard offering a 500,000 bbl parcel of Basrah crude for end-June delivery at US3.80/bbl under August WTI compared with US4.30 before the shut-in,sources noted.