Adnoc to keep September crude supply curbs steady

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) yesterday said it will keep curbs on its crude oil supplies to its Asian term buyers in September steady with August levels.

Adnoc, main oil producer for the UAE and an Opec member, will supply Murban, Lower Zakum, Umm Shaif and Upper Zakum crudes at 19 per cent below contracted volumes for September, it said in a statement.

The steady curbs on supplies may provide some support to the differentials in spot Abu Dhabi crudes, traders said. But added that the impact is unlikely to be substantial as the cuts were steady with those in August. "They have been conducting cuts for some time, and we had been expecting cuts of this size, the same as the previous month," said a trader with a major Japanese buyer.

Opec ministers kept production steady at their meeting in May after agreeing to cut 4.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil output since last summer in a bid to shore up prices.

Oil supplies from Opec rose in June from May, when higher output from several members of the group offset cutbacks in Nigeria in the wake of militant attacks on the oil industry, a Reuters survey showed earlier this month. The UAE, which has been cutting supply to Asia since December, was seen pumping 2.25 million bpd, which was 30,000 bpd over its targeted output.

Adnoc said it would continue to impose shipping limits on exports in place for September, depriving buyers of the option to load an additional five per cent above contracted volumes on each cargo, a standard industry practice known as operational tolerance.

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