South Korean and Japanese refiners aim to get more Mexican and Canadian crude oil at attractive prices, because cyberspace suppliers, isthmus, accessing the western mixture, and cold crude oil may have to foster dependence on northeast Asian buyers if exports to the US become difficult or cannot be beneficial. .
Washington’s decision to impose a 25% tariff on all imports from Mexico and a 10% tariff for energy imports from Canada can slow down and somewhat disrupt the flow of crude oil trade in the North American market. In the end, suppliers of Mexican and Canada crude oil can switch to Asian outlets as medicine, might bring good opportunities for some Asian refiners to take a lot of North American acid crude oil cargo with good discounts, according to managers of refinery raw materials based in Seoul and Tokyo .
Asian buyers and traders are willing to negotiate good offers with Mexican and Canadian suppliers. Regarding crude oil, every supplier worldwide know Asia is the main demand center, said the source of raw material management in South Korean and Japanese victims and market analysts in integrated Japanese trading companies based in Singapore.
“It might be interesting to see how Mexico and Canada [crude] Suppliers react [to recent tariffs]And I hope they will make more good offers in the Far Eastern Market because they might have to rely more on Asian buyers this year, “said a raw material manager at the big refinery of South Korea.
South Korea – The third largest crude oil importer in Asia – has consistently received one to two VLCC/month acid crude oil from Mexico over the past decade. Mexico was South Korea’s Seventh-Largest Crude Supplier in 2024, with Local Refiners, Inluding Sk Innovation and Hyundai Oilbank, Collectively Buying 26.5 Million Barrels of Light and Heavy Sour Grades from Pamex Last Year, .
South Korea’s large rectors operate very sophisticated purification facilities, and they are more than able to solve some of the most severe density of crude oil, such as Mexican Maya Crude Oil.
The cost of raw materials is an important factor in the entire improvement margin mechanism, and we are willing to consider significantly to improve the procurement of Mexican and Canadian crude oil if the supplier approaches Asian market participants with attractive offers to diversify their sales outlets, an official at the large refineries in South South Korea, South South South Korea South South Korea south south korea south south south korea south korean korean south korea south korea south korean korean south korean korean south korea south korea south korean southan they tell s&f global commodity insights.
The official selling price of the spread between virtual crude oil and heavy crude oil of Saudi Arabia remains consistently with steep discounts, a clear indication that Asian refiners are equipped with very sophisticated fluid catalytic crackers and hydrocracking units can produce far more margins Both processing Mexican crude oil rather than Persian raw bay.
Earlier this month, Pamex set the OSP differential, or K factor, from rough virtual to load in February and head for Asia in a minus of $ 8.10/b to average Oman/Dubai, while Saudi Aramco increased the difference between the February OSP that was bound by Asia For him, Arabic heavy crude oil is 40 cents/b of the month to the month to minus 50 cents/b to the average oman/dubai.
This effectively places the differential OSP Maya for February with a $ 7.60/B discount on the Differential Arab weighing OSP for the same month of loading.
Japanese opportunity for diversification
In 2024, Japan was very dependent on the supplier of Middle Eastern crude oil, and the fourth largest crude oil importer in Asia had to diversify supply sources by exploring more opportunities for purchasing spots in America, according to traders and raw material managers in Japanese distilled.
Japan took 2,213 million b/d from the Middle East supplier in 2024, forming 95.4% of the total annual crude oil imports, the latest data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed.
Excessive dependence on Middle Eastern suppliers has a negative impact on purification and economic margins. The North American market has been a decent alternative supply choice over the past few years, raw material managers in two main refineries of Japan, including Eneeos, told the previous Commodity Insights.
In November, President and CEO of Eneos Tomohide Miyata said that the constraints in the country were open to buying Canadian crude oil together with US and South American barrels, if proven economical.
“We intend to actively diversify the source of our crude oil supply, including Canadian crude oil, while maintaining Middle East crude oil as a basis. We will take into account the stability of procurement, compatibility with crude oil purification facilities, and, of course, feasibility, “said a spokesman for Eneeos.
“Aside from the Middle East, we also get crude oil, especially from the US, as well as Central and South America,” said the spokesman, refused to decipher certain trade.
Meanwhile, trading sources at Cosmo Oil show that heavy Mexican light and crude oil are the value of raw materials that are familiar with the company, and 86,000 b/d refinery Yokkaichi has a rough rough history of rough and rough coarse mexican.
A market analyst from a Japanese trading company based in Singapore said the tariff can create obstacles for rough sales of Canada and Mexico to the US, while Japanese refiners may find opportunities to benefit from this situation.
“As a trading company, when [Asian side] the request is ripe and [Canadian and Mexican] Abundant supply, we can play an important role in the middle, “said Analyst at Japan Trading House.
Source: Platts
