Chinese independent refiner Chambroad Petrochemical has bought one Canadian crude cargo for May delivery, four trade sources said on Tuesday, following a decline in Venezuelan crude supply into China. The refiner was one of the main buyers of Venezuelan oil, while it occasionally imported Canadian oil exported from the Trans Mountain pipeline for its bitumen production, according to trade sources. In its latest deal, Chambroad purchased Canadian Cold Lake crude exported from TMX at a discount close to $5 per barrel against the July ICE Brent contract for delivery to eastern Shandong province in May, two of the people said.
Chambroad, which operates a 70,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Shandong and an 80,000-bpd refinery in the southern Hainan province, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Venezuelan shipments to China have fallen sharply since mid-December, after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a blockade on sanctioned ships, part of a campaign against President Nicolas Maduro that culminated in his capture by U.S. forces in early January. Independent refiners in Shandong are also buying discounted Iranian heavy crude to replace Venezuelan shipments, trade sources said on Monday.
(Reporting by Siyi Liu, Florence Tan and Chen Aizhu in Singapore and Georgina McCartney in Houston; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair)