Asia-Pacific Crude-June Chim Sao, Ruby premiums down

SINGAPORE, April 25 (Reuters) - The Asia-Pacific crude market was mixed on Wednesday with some grades trading higher and others such as Vietnam's Chim Sao and Ruby trading at a lower level than May cargoes, trade sources said.

EAST TIMOR

* ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) has sold 650,000 barrels of Bayu Undan condensate to Glencore (LON:GLEN) at a discount of $1.60 to $1.70 a barrel to dated Brent, trade sources said.

The cargo is for June 6-12 loading, they added.

VIETNAM

* Vietnam's PV Oil has sold two cargoes of Chim Sao crude for loading over June 8 to 12 and June 21 to 25, trade sources said.

It sold one cargo to Ampol at a premium of $2.50 a barrel to dated Brent and the other to Unipec at a premium of $2.80 a barrel to dated Brent, they said.

This is a sharp drop from the $3 to $3.50 a barrel premium for May-loading cargoes sold earlier, they added.

A refinery maintenance planned at a crude distillation unit at Taiyo Oil Shikoku refinery in June and July is expected to weigh on demand from the refiner's demand for Chim Sao crude, they said. REF/A

* PV Oil also sold 240,000 barrels of Song Doc crude for June 13 to 15 loading Vitol at a premium of $3.40 to $3.60 a barrel to dated Brent, traders said.

This is higher than the $3 to $3.30 a barrel premium that the grade sold for last for loading in February, traders said.

* PV Oil sold 300,000 barrels of Ruby crude for loading over June 12 to 20 to Unipec at a premium of $2 to $2.30 a barrel to dated Brent, traders said.

This is down from the $2.50 to $3 a barrel premium that the crude grade traded at for loading in May, they said.

MALAYSIA

* PetroBrunei may have sold a June loading Kimanis cargo at a slight discount to the Malaysian crude oil official selling price, trade sources said.

ConocoPhillips may also have sold a June-loading Kimanis cargo at a premium of about $3.70 a barrel to dated Brent, they added.

This is up from the $3.50 a barrel premium traded for May-loading cargoes, they said.

AUSTRALIA

* Japan's Inpex may have sold 550,000 barrels of Pyrenees crude for June 7 to 11 loading at a premium of about $1.50 a barrel to dated Brent, trade sources said.

BHP last sold a May-loading Pyrenees cargo at a premium of $1 to $1.50 a barrel premium to dated Brent to Thailand's PTT, traders said.

NEWS

* China's Ministry of Commerce granted four private oil refineries quotas for a total of 4.96 million tonnes of crude imports in 2018, four sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday. China is expected to issue fuel export quotas for the rest of this year in one allocation round rather than in batches, keeping the total allowances for 2018 unchanged from last year, according to two trading sources with knowledge of the matter. A record 16 companies have said they will take part in Brazil's scheduled June auction for the right to explore offshore oil blocks in the country's high-potential pre-salt area, government regulator ANP said on Tuesday. Firefighters in Indonesia struggled on Wednesday to contain a blaze at an oil well in the northwestern province of Aceh that killed at least 15 people and injured 40, authorities said. the export allowances at around last year's level of 43 million tonnes will heat up competition in the massive domestic fuel market, where there is already a growing surplus, with new plants due to start up later this year.

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* S-Oil Corp, South Korea's third-biggest oil refiner, expects strong demand growth to bolster second-quarter refining margins after earlier-than-usual regular refinery maintenance outages squeezed January-March profit below market estimates. said on Wednesday in an earnings statement that first-quarter operating profit fell 23 percent from the same period a year earlier to 255.5 billion won ($237 million), citing reduced sales and production following the planned maintenance outages.

For crude prices, oil product cracks and refining margins, please click on the RICs below.

Brent

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Dubai

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Brent/Dubai EFS

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PRODUCT CRACKS

Fuel oil crack

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Gasoil crack

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Naphtha crack

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Complex refining margins REF/MARGIN1