South Korea's GS Caltex buys rare Canadian crude cargo for Feb (updated)

GS Holdings

18/12/2017 08:29

* 300,000 bbl Cold Lake crude to arrive in 2nd half of Feb 
    * GS Caltex trying out heavy crude from Canada -source 
 
 (Adds comment, shipment details) 
    By Jane Chung and Florence Tan 
    SEOUL/SINGAPORE, Dec 18 (Reuters) - South Korean refiner GS 
Caltex Corp has bought a rare cargo of Cold Lake crude, the 
company's first purchase in more than two decades of this 
Canadian oil grade, a company spokesman said on Monday. 
    The second-largest refiner in South Korea bought 300,000 
barrels of the heavy sour crude for delivery in the second half 
of February, he said. 
    The refiner is trying out a small volume of the oil, which 
has a quality similar to that of Iraq's Basra Heavy crude, a 
person familiar with the matter said, speaking on condition of 
anonymity because he wasn't authorised speak to media.  
    About 300,000 barrels of Cold Lake were loaded onto Panamax 
Selecao on Dec. 13 at Vancouver for delivery to an unspecified 
destination, trade flows data on Thomson Reuters Eikon showed. 
    One trading source said the arbitrage window might have 
briefly opened when the discount between U.S. West Texas 
Intermediate crude and Brent futures  CL-LCO1=R  stretched as 
wide as $7 a barrel last week on a disruption in Forties crude 
supply.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1OB15B 
    Heavy crude produced in Canada is trading close to its 
deepest discount in four years as pipeline constraints pushed 
western Canadian crude inventories to record highs.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N1OF019 
    GS Caltex operates a 790,000 barrels per day refinery in 
Yeosu. The refiner is equally owned by GS Energy Corp, a unit of 
GS Holdings  078930.KS , and U.S. oil major Chevron Corp 
 CVX.N . 
    Another South Korean refiner Hyundai Oilbank Corp has also 
expressed interest in purchasing Canadian crude.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1M82EW 
     
 
 (Reporting by Jane Chung in SEOUL and Florence Tan in 
SINGAPORE; Additional reporting by Nia Williams in CALGARY; 
Editing by Tom Hogue and Kenneth Maxwell) 
 ((Florence.Tan@thomsonreuters.com; +65 6870 3497; Reuters 
Messaging: florence.tan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: SOUTHKOREA OIL/GS