China’s strong appetite for Brazilian crude has set off alarm bells among various producers in Oceania and the Middle East, prompting Australian and key Persian Gulf crude suppliers to slash their selling prices in an effort to remain competitive and protect their market share in Asia, market participants said Wednesday. Since late 2016, China saw a dramatic increase in Brazilian crude imports and the trend remained firmly intact with two Chinese state-run oil companies purchasing 5 million barrels or more of heavy sweet crude from the South American state for loading in March, according to a source with direct knowledge of the deals. March shipping fixtures seen by S&P Global Platts also showed that PetroChina has fixed the San Jacinto to move 130,000 mt of crude oil for March loading from Brazil to China, while trading company Vitol also booked Suez Hans and Fraternity to move a combined 260,000 […]