Six years after its first export shipment, Russian crude ESPO Blend is as far from becoming a regional benchmark as it was then. It remains an also-ran in Asia-Pacific despite its high quality, annual shipments of 30 million tonnes and the proximity of Japan, China and South Korea, Asia’s major crude importers. Traders attribute the lack of progress to lower liquidity and a late release of shipment schedules. “As counterintuitive as it is, a late release of shipment schedules for (the Far East port of) Kozmino is one of the biggest problems,” a trader at a major exporter said. Despite higher shipments, most of them are done under long-term contracts, and the blend is not winning new customers. CHINA IS TOP CUSTOMER […]