The first shipment of Russian Novy Port crude grade arrived in China during the week ended July 12, trading sources said. The Delta Hellas, a Greek-flagged tanker carried 144,000 tons of Novy Port crude cargo from Murmansk on May 12 and arrived in Yantai port in China’s Shandong province after travelling 12.502 nautical miles via the Suez Canal.
The light sweet crude was purchased by ChemChina and produced by Gazprom Neft in gas-rich Russia’s Arctic region. It is mostly exported to traders and end-users in Europe. It has 0.1% sulfur content and an API degree of 35, similar to Lukoil’s Varandey (API 35-37, 0.5% sulfur content) and ESPO blend (API 34-35, 0.58%-0.65% sulfur content).
The medium-sweet ESPO is the most popular grade for Shandong refiners. The price for Novy Port was on par to that of Varandey but slightly lower than ESPO for the same loading window. On a DES Shandong basis, Novy Port and Varandey grades were traded at around $6/barrel discount to ICE Brent for June delivery.
