Korea National Oil Corp News

After the first OPEC oil production cut in eight years took effect in January, oil traders from Houston to Singapore started emptying millions of barrels of crude from storage tanks. Investors hailed the drawdowns as the beginning of the end of a two-year supply glut - raising hopes for steadily rising per-barrel prices. It hasn't worked out that way. Now, many of those same storage tanks are filling back up or draining more slowly than investors and oil firms had expected, according…

South Korea, Asia's largest buyer of condensate, will step up purchases of the ultra light oil from Iran by more than 50 percent in June, two sources said, as competitive pricing squeezes out rival oil from Qatar. Expected June shipments of condensate from Iran may reach at least six million barrels, or 200,000 barrels per day (bpd), said the sources. This would be a record level of imports, four times that in January when sanctions on Tehran were lifted, according to data from Korea National Oil Corp. In contrast, condensate imports from Qatar in April have fallen to 5.32 million barrels, down 19 percent from January, KNOC data showed.

South Korea plans to boost imports of Iranian oil, especially condensate, this year to meet growing demand after sanctions on the Islamic nation were lifted in January. The world's fifth largest importer of crude is also a big buyer of condensate, a super light oil that can be processed into fuels and petrochemicals. Iran's return would help ease tight condensate supply in a market dominated by fellow OPEC producer Qatar. "We will increase oil and natural gas (liquids) imports from Iran, especially Iranian condensate," South Korea's trade and energy ministry said on Tuesday. Iran is exporting 100,000 barrels of oil a day to South Korea, one of its main crude customers, and hopes to double that figure by the end of 2016, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh was quoted as saying on Monday.

South Korea's crude oil imports in December rose 21.1 percent from a year earlier to 97.9 million barrels, preliminary data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy showed on Friday. The final data will be released later in the month by state-run Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC). * Note: The ministry did not break down imports by country of origin. South Korea's total crude imports in November fell 1.5 percent year-on-year, according to KNOC data last month.

A New York-based commodities merchant bank run by veteran energy traders, Neal Shear and Kaushik Amin, announced on Friday plans to buy the aging Come by Chance refinery in Newfoundland from South Korea's state-run oil company. Korea National Oil Corp said it will sell the 115,000-barrel-per-day refinery to SilverRange Financial Partners LLC for an undisclosed price following a months-long search to find a buyer. The deal also includes 53 gas stations and convenience stores. SilverRange is a New York-based merchant bank focused on energy and natural resources owned by SilverPeak Partners, a real estate fund with over $12 billion in assets under management, according to its website.

Korea National Oil Corp said on Friday that it would sell its 115,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Come by Chance, Newfoundland, to SilverRange Financial Partners LLC for an undisclosed price following a months-long search to find a buyer. KNOC's Harvest Operations Corp unit is selling the aging refinery, as well as 53 gas stations and convenience stores, to SilverRange. The New York-based merchant bank has entered into a multiyear refining deal with an unspecified global oil company, Harvest Operations and SilverRange said in a release. "(The refinery) is strategically located along Atlantic crude oil shipping routes and provides access to petroleum markets in Europe and the U.S. Eastern seaboard," SilverRange official Harsh Rameshwar said in the release.