JEDDAH: Supply tightness and looming refinery outages in the Middle East have kept gasoline and gas oil premiums supported this week, traders said Wednesday. Saudi Aramco, state-run Bahrain Petroleum Co (Bapco) and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) will have partial shutdowns of some of their refineries between mid-January to mid-February. "The upcoming refinery shutdowns are not yet fully priced," one gasoline trader said. "In a couple of weeks time, or in 10 days, we could see the market getting tighter." Aramco has scheduled to shut a 150,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) crude distillation unit (CDU) in Jubail for about 45 days of maintenance starting from February, sources had said. "There is not huge demand from the Middle East but we will see Saudis coming to the market for more spot cargoes in the next six months, particularly during their refinery outages," a second gasoline trader said. Aramco has sealed a deal to purchase up to 360,000 tons of gasoline over six months from BP and Lukoil at below-market prices, industry sources said Tuesday. United Arab Emirates' fuel retailer Emarat has also concluded its term purchases, the second trader said. The company made a deal with Total to buy around two cargoes every month between January to June, he said. Two traders said prices for 95 RON gasoline were a couple of dollars higher than last week's plus $20 over benchmark Mediterranean quotes. Saudi Aramco has also concluded its 2011 term purchases for low sulfur gas oil. Traders said the kingdom has bought up to 48 cargoes for the period of February to November. Vitol, Cargill, Fal Oil, Total, IPG were among the sellers. One trader said for anything less than six cargoes the premium was $4.45 a barrel over Middle East benchmark while for six and more than six cargoes the premium was $4.75 a barrel. "The market is tight on 500 ppm," one distillates trader said. Some producers have moved to capture the premium. Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC) was looking to sell 40,000 tons of low sulfur gas oil, also known as 500 ppm, traders said. East African countries such as Mozambique, Kenya and Tanzania were the main buyers of low sulfur gas oil. But traders said 500 ppm was becoming more popular across the Middle East as well.
