China urges state refiners to halt April fuel exports, says report

Beijing has told Chinese state refiners to consider suspending exports of gasoline and diesel in April as the Ukraine war heightens concern of shortages, three sources with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.

The global market is reeling from the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that has led to western sanctions on Russia, the world’s leading supplier of crude and products. The prospect of a further reduction in Asian exports helped to drive refining margins for some products to record highs.

Asian supplies have also been reduced by outages because of the refinery maintenance season and action by the Chinese government earlier in the year to prevent excessive production. The three sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said companies were likely to scale back overseas shipments further in April following reduced exports in March.

One of the sources said the cuts were aimed at preventing a shortage as independent refiners were under pressure to process less because of the surge in crude prices. Another said, exports might not be halted completely. “My feeling is companies were told to hold off talks for new export deals,” the source said. 

Russia is the world’s top exporter of crude and oil products combined, at around 7 million barrels per day, or 7 per cent of global supply, according to the International Energy Agency. 

Russia seeks to sell LNG in Asia, test buyer resolve (Bloomberg)

Russia’s Sakhalin Energy offered its first spot liquefied natural gas cargo to Asia since the country’s invasion of Ukraine — a key test of how keen buyers in the region are to handle the nation’s fuel. 

The firm released a sales tender offering a cargo for late-April loading from the Sakhalin-2 project just north of Japan. Despite surging prices driven by events in Europe, some traders expect limited interest as importers have avoided Russian shipments since the invasion.