Chinese refiner Rongsheng Petrochemical has bought 1.65 million barrels of Canadian crude oil to be exported from the Trans-Mountain pipeline for delivery in November, including its first cargo of Kearl Lake crude, trade sources said on Friday.
The mega refiner has become a regular buyer of the heavy sour Canadian crude since the newly expanded Trans-Mountain pipeline started operations in May.
The rare 550,000-barrel cargo of heavy sour Kearl Lake crude was sold by Exxon Mobil Corp, the sources said. One of them added that the cargo was sold at a discount between $5.50 and $6 a barrel to ICE Brent.
Rongsheng Petrochemical also bought two 550,000-barrel cargoes of Canadian Access Western Blend (AWB) crude from Totsa, the trading arm of TotalEnergies, at discounts of $5-$6 a barrel to ICE Brent, the sources said.
Kearl Lake crude has an API gravity of 19.5 and contains 4.1% sulphur. It is also a highly acidic grade, similar to AWB.
Companies typically do not comment on their deals.
(Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)