Sonatrach includes Argus price option in bitumen tender

Algerian state-owned Sonatrach is seeking offers into a July to October bitumen import tender that will for the first time include Argus pricing as an option for suppliers.

Sonatrach is seeking one to two 5,000t cargoes per month for the period, with the actual number to be mutually agreed each month.

The tender, issued last week, will close tomorrow and will probably be awarded on 8 July. It will seek offers specifying the bitumen price with reference to the Argus fob Mediterranean Bitumen Price Index, fob basis Augusta, or to fob Mediterranean high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) cargoes — the traditional bitumen cargo benchmark in the Mediterranean, northwest Europe and west Africa.

Sonatrach awarded more than half of its 2020 import tenders to Spanish refiner Cepsa at prices linked to Dated Brent, a reference favoured by many European refiners over HSFO since the 0.5pc global limit on sulphur content in bunker fuels was introduced at the start of the year. But the crude futures price collapse caused in part by the Covid-19 pandemic led many European suppliers to reconsider the use of crude markers like Dated and Ice Brent, both in spot deals and in term sales to Mediterranean and northwest European buyers.

By Keyvan Hedvat