Ceypetco To Buy Murban Crude Oil On Term Contract

22 Aug, 2015 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's Ceylon Petroleum Corp will seek to buy Murban crude oil from Abu Dhabi on term contract after previously buying the oil in the spot market, a report said.

"There has been a change in the refinery process and it's now more profitable for (Ceypetco) to buy Murban crude oil," a source told Reuters.

"There is a higher yield of value-added oil products like middle distillates and gasoline and the sulphur is low.

" Sri Lanka switched to spot imports of Oman light and Murban crude oil after Western sanctions were imposed on Iran in 2012 and reduced imports of Iranian oil. Sri Lanka's Sapugaskanda refinery, which has a capacity of 50,000 barrels per day, is configured to run on Iranian crude.



Ceypetco officials previously said that the yield at the refinery from processing alternative crudes had been 15-20 percent lower than that from Iran light. Murban crude oil is produced by UAE's Abu Dhabi National Oil Co and is one of many crude oil grades available for refiners to choose from.



It has a sulphur content of 0.79 percent. Ceypetco is still considering if it wants to permanently switch to Murban crude oil imports, but for now will meet its requirements through the term contract, the source added.

In the term tender, Ceypetco seeks 10 cargoes of 700,000 barrels each of Murban crude oil for delivery into its single point buoy mooring 1 in Colombo. The cargoes are for delivery between Dec. 1, 2015 and July 31, 2016. The tender closes on Sept. 2 and is valid for six weeks. Ceypetco has requested the cargoes be loaded from either Jebel Dhanna or Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.