Chinese traders ship jet fuel from Singapore to Europe

China Aviation Oil (Singapore)

15/06/2017 11:19

* CAO, Unipec to ship at least 240,000 T jet fuel to Europe 
    * Companies bought total of 400,000 T since start of June 
    * Refinery maintenance, peak summer demand limits Chinese 
bbls 
 
    By Jessica Jaganathan 
    SINGAPORE, June 15 (Reuters) - Chinese traders are shipping 
jet fuel from Singapore to Europe even as domestic demand in 
China is set to strengthen during summer season air travel, 
industry sources said.  
    China Aviation Oil (Singapore)  CNAO.SI , subsidiary of 
state-owned China National Aviation Fuel Group, and Unipec, 
trading arm of state oil major Sinopec  600028.SS , have 
provisionally booked vessels to ship jet fuel west, three 
industry sources familiar with the matter said.  
    Sinopec's Hong Kong unit was also seeking jet fuel barrels 
in oil price agency S&P Global Platts' trading period known as 
market-on-close (MOC) this week, traders said. The company 
seldom participates in the MOC process.  
    The shipments could end up tightening the Asian jet fuel 
market and lifting prices, but for now, according to one of the 
sources, trade is profitable into Europe.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1J92WI     
    Refinery maintenance and peak summer demand for airline 
travel is already absorbing jet fuel supply in China, which 
could be why Chinese traders are shipping barrels from Singapore 
instead, said a source familiar with the Chinese market.  
    "The summer holidays are approaching so (China's) jet fuel 
demand is going up, plus there are at least three refineries 
having maintenance so could explain why the sudden interest (for 
barrels from Singapore)," the source added.  
    Phone calls to CAO and Sinopec offices in Singapore and 
Beijing went unanswered.      
    CAO has chartered the SKS Dokka to ship 90,000 tonnes of jet 
fuel to load from Singapore on June 20, bound for the United 
Kingdom or European continent (UKC), according to shipping data 
from Thomson Reuters Eikon and shipbrokers.  
    The ship is currently docked at Malaysia's Sungai Udang 
port, the Eikon data shows.  
    Unipec has provisionally booked the Captain Paris to ship 
80,000 tonnes of jet fuel from Singapore to UKC to load on June 
22, a Singapore-based shipbroker said.  
    Unipec had initially tried to book another vessel but failed 
due to berthing restrictions. It is planning to charter a second 
vessel to ship jet fuel in the same route, sources have said. 
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1J92WI 
    If the cargoes are successfully fixed, jet fuel shipments 
from Singapore to Europe will hit at least 240,000 tonnes in 
June, the highest monthly volumes for this year and more than 
six times the volumes shipped in May, data from trade 
development agency International Enterprise showed.  O/SING1   
    Unipec and CAO seldom ship jet fuel from Singapore, traders 
said. They could also be trying to sell excess cargoes they 
bought in Singapore recently, one of them said.  
    CAO and Unipec have snapped up at least 2.97 million 
barrels, or about 400,000 tonnes, of jet fuel in Singapore from 
the start of June, traders said.  O/AS  
 
 (Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan) 
 ((Jessica.Jaganathan@thomsonreuters.com; +65 6870 3822; Reuters 
Messaging: jessica.jaganathan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: SINGAPORE JET/EXPORTS