Norway’s newest grade of North Sea crude oil has attracted strong interest from buyers in Asia, Reuters said on November 22. Trade sources and refinery staffers told the agency that Equinor was set to deliver cargoes of Johan Sverdrup oil to India’s Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), South Korea’s Hyundai Oilbank Corp., and several independent Chinese refineries over the next few months.
The new grade of crude, named after the field from which it is being extracted, appeals to buyers because it is low in sulfur and competitively priced, the sources said. They noted that the Chinese refineries had agreed to pay a premium of $6 per barrel over Brent crude for January-loading cargoes due to arrive in Shandong in February.
Johan Sverdrup is the largest oil field discovered in the North Sea in more than 30 years. It is on track to see production rise to 440,000 barrels per day by the middle of next year.