Chevron Charters VLCC, North Sea Forties Cargo Bound for S. Korea

LONDON (Dow Jones)–Up to 2 million barrels of North Sea Forties crude are set to head to Asia later this month, supporting the price of the grade, which is the main component of benchmark Brent, according to crude traders and a shipping fixture seen by Dow Jones Newswires Wednesday.

Chevron Corp. (CVX) chartered the Very Large Crude Carrier, or VLCC, Mesdar to ship crude from Hound Point in the U.K. to South Korea on April 22, the fixture showed. The cost of shipping is $7.3 million, according to the fixture.

Chevron has been an active buyer in the Forties market in recent days, North Sea traders said.

The buying–along with refineries returning from maintenance and stronger refining margins–has supported Forties prices, traders said.

Two Forties cargoes were sold Tuesday to Chevron at premiums of 35 cents and 50 cents to physical benchmark Brent. In the middle of last week, cargoes were sold either at a discount to the marker or at a much smaller premium.

-By Konstantin Rozhnov, Dow Jones Newswires