Asian gasoil weak as big buyers stay away

SINGAPORE, Aug 4 (Reuters):Asian gasoil demand remained weak as there was a lack of spot buyers in the market.
Major buyers like Indonesia and Saudi Arabia have largely stayed away from the spot market during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, the usual peak demand season, which is weighing on fundamentals, traders said.
Indonesia's Petral has been buying about 2 million barrels of gasoil a month, down from an average of 3 to 4 million barrels a month last year, one of the traders said.
Saudi Arabia's spot purchases have also dropped due to recently added refining capacity in the country which is able to meet gasoil demand for power generation purpose, he added.
"There is a lot of supply, but we are not seeing the same kind of demand we used to last year," a second trader said.     
Tanzania is set to import 162,771 tonnes of gasoil, 11,058 tonnes of jet fuel and 700 tonnes of kerosene for delivery in September from Swiss trader Addax Energy, trade sources said.
Tanzania's Petroleum Importation Coordinator, which represents oil marketing companies in the east African nation, bought the cargoes at a weighted average premium of $43.756 a tonne, the sources added.
Addax Energy had placed the lowest bid out of four other companies including Vitol, Gapco Kenya, Enoc Africa and Augusta Energy, one of the traders said.
UAE's Emarat entered the spot market seeing a jet fuel cargo for September, which is expected to lend some support to jet fuel sentiments in the Gulf, traders said.