FACTBOX-Market impact of PetroChina-SPC trading merger

Nov 3 (Reuters) - PetroChina (0857.HK) will merge its oil
trading books with Singapore Petroleum Co (SPC) by the start of
next year.

This followed the Chinese major's $1 billion acquisition of
a 45.51 percent stake in the Singapore firm belonging to Keppel
Corp (KPLM.SI).

The acquisition was completed on Oct. 16, after
PetroChina's mandatory offer was accepted by remaining
shareholders, giving it sole control of the company, and SPC
was delisted from the Singapore Exchange six days later.

Efforts to integrate the two company's trading operations
are underway, with PetroChina expected to retain all of SPC's
staff, with no retrenchments. The process is set to start in
December and the two companies will trade as a single entity by
the start of 2010.

PetroChina (PTR.N)(601857.SS) also has marketing staff in
China and Hong Kong who sell export barrels produced from their
China refineries.

"At the moment, they are still trying to figure out how
best to streamline trading operations here and with trading
personnel in China and Hong Kong as well," an industry source
said.

"It will be chaotic at the beginning but it should all
settle down maybe in three to six months."

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* FUEL OIL

- The merged fuel oil desk will have 18 people including
four traders, handling a total 900,000 to 1.2 million tonnes of
cargoes and with a combined bunker outlet estimated at
400,000-450,000 tonnes a month.

Others include operations personnel and other support
staff.

- PetroChina trades 800,000-1.0 million tonne a month; with
300,000-350,000 tonnes sold into the Singapore bunker fuel
market and the rest sold as cargo lots to other traders.

Its supplies come mainly from its deal with Venezuela's
PDVSA for three to four Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) each
month.

- SPC has 80,000-100,000 tonnes of production from its 50
percent share at the Singapore Refinery Co (SRC) and buys
additional volumes to meet its marine fuel commitments of
200,000-250,000 tonnes for both ex-wharf and delivered bunkers.

- The 285,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery has an
estimated yield of 15 percent fuel oil, 40 percent middle
distillates and 45 percent of light distillates, of which
two-thirds are gasoline and a third is naphtha.

Chevron Corp (CVX.N) owns the other half of SRC.

* MIDDLE DISTILLATES

- The combined trading group will have four diesel and jet
fuel traders.
- SPC markets its refinery production of 1.6-1.7 million
barrels of distillates per month.

- PetroChina's Singapore team operates as a trading entity,
buying and selling off its storage facility at Universal
Terminal with capacity of 100,000-150,000 cubic metres.

- Its total trading volumes are estimated at
150,000-200,000 tonnes a month, with a term deal for
15,000-20,000 tonnes a month into Vietnam, Asia's second
largest buyer.

- The Singapore team does not deal with the refinery
barrels from China, which are sold by separate personnel based
in China and Hong Kong.

- The SPC team is focused more on marketing of middle
distillates mainly under term contracts. It also trades swaps
for hedging purposes.

* GASOLINE AND NAPHTHA

- The merged company will have three naphtha and gasoline
traders.

- PetroChina buys 20,000-25,000 tonnes of naphtha a month
from Saudi Aramco and India, reselling to South Korean
petrochemical producers.

- Most of SPC's production of 600,000-700,000 barrels per
month are sold under term deals to Petrochemical Corporation of
Singapore (PCS). - PetroChina also trades spot gasoline, mostly
to Indonesia, from its Singapore office, outside of exports
from its refineries in China, which have been steady at
150,000-200,000 barrel a month, including for October.

* STORAGE

- PetroChina has 380,000 cu m of fuel oil storage at
Singapore's Universal Terminal, in which it has a 35 percent
stake.

- SPC has 150,000-200,000 cu m at its Sebarok Terminal and
another about 80,000 cu m at the SRC, which has a total
capacity of 2.1 million cu m, mostly used for crude to feed the
plant.

- These combined storage capacities place the merged group
as among the largest owners of storage capacity in Singapore.

- The Chinese major has another 100,000-150,000 cu m of
clean product storage, mostly for middle distillates.
(Reporting by Yaw Yan Chong and Seng Li Peng; Editing by
Ramthan Hussain)