Strong fuel oil pulls Urals east

摘要

Buying interest from Thailand and stronger fuel oil demand has underpinned values for Oman crude,which has risen by around 2/bl relative to rival Russian grade Urals this month (see tipper graph).This has helped prise open the arbitrage to Baltic loading cargoes of Urals to Asia-Pacific.China's Unipec bought at least one VLCC of Urals.Refiners on the US Gulf coast have been running down supplies of feedstock ahead of the new year for tax reasons.Typically,Europe exports about 80pc of its vacuum gasotl.But the arbitrage has been strangled by the lack of US baying,denting European prices.