Regular Buyers News

The U.S.-led coalition imposing a price cap on seaborne Russian oil announced changes on Wednesday to its compliance regime the Treasury Department said will make it harder for Russian exporters to bypass the cap.The Treasury also imposed fresh sanctions on a ship manager owned by the Russian government and three oil traders involved in Russian oil trade.The Group of Seven (G7) industrialized countries last year imposed a price cap of $60 per barrel on Russian oil shipments in…

Buyers of Russian oil have faced difficulties over payments and availability of vessels after imposition of Western sanctions against Moscow over Ukraine, traders said on Monday, while BP Plc has canceled fuel oil loadings from a Black Sea port.The West has introduced sweeping sanctions, including on the banking sector, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russia calls its action a "special operation" to disarm Ukraine.The United States and its allies on Saturday moved to block certain Russian banks' access to the SWIFT international payment system that helps international trade flow smoothly.

The volume of global price benchmark North Sea crude being held in floating storage has declined sharply since mid-August, according to shipping data and trade sources, a sign that a long-awaited market rebalancing is gaining momentum. Two supertankers being used to store North Sea crudes offshore the UK, Desimi and Gener8 Neptune, contain about 4 million barrels of oil, trade sources said. Three weeks ago, the total was closer to 10 million barrels. The clearing of the crude to destinations including China and South Korea has been encouraged by a rise in the price of Brent crude for delivery soon relative to later supplies, trade sources said, a feature known as backwardation. "The whole market is tightening up," said a North Sea trade source.

Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA has delayed and canceled crude deliveries to commercial partners in recent months, according to documents seen by Reuters, a further sign of the steady production decline of the country's top export. From October through January, PDVSA canceled or delayed delivery of almost 7 million barrels of crude due to cargoes being rescheduled or skipped, often because it did not have enough oil available, according to internal company documents seen by Reuters. Most pending cargoes were supposed to be delivered to regular buyers including U.S. Phillips 66 and Thai TIPCO Asphalt. Other shipments were canceled even before being assigned to specific customers.

Iran's crude oil exports have surged to their highest in 20 months, far exceeding a 1 million barrel-per-day limit set by the West under an interim deal on curbing Tehran's nuclear program. The International Energy Agency's monthly report revised February's global crude imports from Iran upwards by 240,000 bpd to 1.65 million barrels per day, the highest since June 2012. Under an interim deal signed in November between Iran and world powers - known as the P5+1 - that came into effect in January of this year, Iran's exports are supposed to be held at an average 1 million bpd for the six months to July 20. Tough international sanctions over the past two years have cut Iran's oil exports around a half.

Poland's Gdynia Shipyard is likely to take up 20-25 percent of shares in the Finnish Kvaerner Masa-Yards, Gdynia's chief executive Janusz Szlanta said last week. "Negotiations with other investors are still under way and nothing final has been decided yet. Everything points to the fact that Gdynia will take up a stake of between 20 and 25 percent," Szlanta said. "Four groups of investors will buy a new share issue, addressed only to them. The Gdynia shipyard wants to increase its stake in Masa-Yards in the future, but that will not happen sooner than in a year," Szlanta said. He declined to name the value of the transaction, adding final negotiations would probably end in two months.