Indonesia received first gasoline cargo from Russia’s Rosneft

According to Russian energy giant Rosneft, its trading arm had delivered an inaugural gasoline cargo to the Asia-Pacific. This transaction marks what could be Russia’s first venture into a region dominated by OPEC producers from the Gulf.

Rosneft declined to say from which refinery it had received the cargo. It also did not say from or to which ports it was being delivered.

The 200,000-barrel cargo, bought by Rosneft from the international market and taken by Indonesian state energy company Pertamina, was delivered on free-on-board (FOB) terms to Malaysia. It was shipped to Pertamina, an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation, within a term agreement for the delivery of 1.2 million barrels signed between the companies in June.

According to a Moscow-based analyst, the move was part of a drive by Rosneft to explore trading given sluggish demand and tough competition on oversupplied European markets.

Indonesia’s fuel output has been hit by a lack of investment in its refining sector, and it imports around half of the 1.6 million barrels of fuel it consumes daily. Pertamina has about 1 million barrels per day of domestic refining capacity.

The country, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, is expected to buy more crude and refinery products from Iraq and Iran later this year.

Rosneft has won rights to develop a refinery and petrochemical plant worth up to US$13 billion in Tuban, in Indonesia’s East Java province.Pertamina, with a budget of up to US$2 billion for mergers and acquisitions, is looking to buy into projects, including Rosneft’s upstream assets, according to an agreement between the two firms.