Dateline 2010-07-29:
Prices of Malaysian Tapis crude climbed on Thursday reflecting market-wide support for distillate-rich grades in Asia-Pacific.
September Tapis cargoes were heard to have traded at premiums of about $4.10 to the Tapis APPI, a trader said, up from about $3.70 for lots exchanged earlier in the month.
The shutdown of Taiwan Formosa Petrochemical Corp’s 540,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery also gave some support to distillate-rich grades in the region, some traders said.
Refiners with no upgrading capacity were looking for high-quality grades such as Tapis to increase fuel output and compensate for the shortfall resulting from the Formosa closure
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Wata - Malaysian Oil and Gas Engineer 