China's Fuhaichuang Petroleum and Petrochemical has re-emerged to seek condensate for its 5 million mt/year condensate splitter in Fujian, adding to its hefty purchases of more than 3 million barrels last month, and highlighting its growing weight in the Asian condensate market.
The company is seeking an unspecified volume of condensate for March delivery in a tender closing Friday, according to sources.
Trade sources, however, expected the company to reduce the volume of its purchases this month after its recent purchase pushed it close to its limit for 2019 quota allocations from the Chinese government.
Fuhaichuang is allowed to import 600,000 mt of crude or condensate, equating to around 5.17 million barrels of condensate, under the first quota allocation for this year, S&P Global Platts reported Wednesday.
The first quota allocation is valid for the whole of 2019 but the volume is insufficient to cover the plant's requirements for the first half of the year. Market sources said the government was not expected to issue a second round of import quotas until mid-2019.
Already for 2019, the company is set to take delivery of around 4.2 million barrels of condensate.
That leaves around 1 million barrels of condensate left for Fuhaichuang to import until the next round of quota allocations are announced.
However, trade sources said Fuhaichuang likely still has some condensate left in storage from its purchase of around 2.24 million barrels in H2 2018 from Australia, Equatorial Guinea and Libya for trial runs.
In total, Fuhaichuang is allowed to apply for a quota allocation of up to 4 million mt of crude or condensate for 2019 under a ceiling set by the government.
FEBRUARY PURCHASE
Fuhaichuang's March-delivery tender comes shortly after it made a sizable purchase of more than 3 million barrels of condensate in December, according to sources. This was the largest volume bought by one company in the spot market in 2018.
Sources said the company bought six Aframax-sized cargoes in the month, all for delivery to Gulei in Fujian province in February.
Among the grades bought were two 650,000-barrel cargoes of Australia's Wheatstone condensate, one 650,000-barrel cargo of Australia's North West Shelf condensate and one 500,000-barrel cargo of Australia's Pluto condensate.
In addition, the company also bought one Aframax-sized cargo each of Libya's Mellitah condensate and Equatorial Guinea's Alba condensate.
Fuhaichuang could not be reached for confirmation on the grades and total volume bought.
The company's hefty purchases foreshadow its growing weight in the Asian condensate market following the restart of its condensate splitter in mid-December, a development that has left some end-users fretting about a shortage of condensate in the spot market.
Trade sources said Fuhaichuang is unlikely to run the whole February purchase volume in its splitter in a single month, and that a portion will be left over for its requirements in the following months.
They said the company likely bought such a large volume due to the current poor environment for condensates, which have led to traded differentials for the region's condensate grades plunging to multi-year lows in recent months.
"Now the price is cheap, so they buy more," one sweet crude trader said.