Bitumen / Asphalt
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Global bitumen and asphalt spot prices are influenced by changing supply and demand fundamentals, VGO and crude prices. Argus is the only provider of global bitumen and asphalt spot prices assessed by a global team of reporters, based on market trade. Spot price coverage includes regional truck, rail and seaborne prices.
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India’s bitumen consumption growth slows in 2025
India’s bitumen consumption growth slows in 2025
Mumbai, 16 January (Argus) — India's bitumen consumption rose by about 4pc on the year in 2025 because of accelerating central government-linked projects, largely in line with expectations of a modest increase, most market participants said. Consumption rose to 8.74mn t in 2025, up from 8.43mn t in 2024, preliminary oil ministry data show. But this was still lower than the record high of 8.8mn t achieved in 2023. The growth was in line with expectations at 4-4.5pc. A market participant close to a state-controlled refiner had been optimistic that the increase could reach 5-6pc. Overall, the volume increase was not that significant, they said. Profit margins shrank in 2025 and were below 2024 levels, despite an increase in consumption, many importers said. Profit margins were squeezed because importers increased their purchases in anticipation of higher demand post-monsoon in 2025, but later struggled to sell in the domestic market because of lower-than-expected demand due to an extended monsoon season, an importer based in the west coast of India said. State-controlled refiners also offered steeper-than-expected discounts. These state refiners sold aggressively and importers were unable to compete, the importer added. Importers and state-controlled refiners typically offer discounts, which are sometimes unusually steep, to drive sales. The early onset and late withdrawal of the monsoon season in 2025 pushed many importers to slash their domestic selling prices or offer larger discounts to liquidate inventories and create ullage. Demand also slowed intermittently because of prolonged delays in the disbursement of project funds by some state governments. Demand in 2026 is expected to grow at the same pace as 2025 but will not accelerate, because the central government is unlikely to release new large-scale projects, market participants said. Prolonged delays in the disbursement of project funds by state governments may also provide headwinds for consumption, they added. Consumption growth in 2026 will be mostly driven by maintenance demand rather than new projects because the government does not have enough funds to release more new projects relative to 2025, another market participant close to a state-controlled refiner said. Some projects have yet to be completed and there is pent-up demand, especially from the national highway side, an east-coast India-based importer said. But imports will find support because bitumen production in India is unlikely to increase, with no new capacity augmentations in the pipeline and refineries increasingly opting to install residue upgradation units. By Sathya Narayanan Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Mideast bitumen flows to India may slow on US threats
Mideast bitumen flows to India may slow on US threats
Mumbai, 14 January (Argus) — Imports of Middle East-origin bitumen into India may slow down, but will not stop completely, even as US president Donald Trump threatened to impose an extra 25pc tariff on imports from countries engaged in business dealings with Iran. Trading activity and importers of Iranian bulk bitumen may slow down in the near term on concerns that importers and vessel owners might come under US sanctions, but activity will not stop completely as importers can transship the cargo from the UAE, India-based importers and market participants said. India is a net importer of bitumen and typically takes deliveries from Iran. "It is either ship-to-ship transfer (STS) or go to the UAE and load but the freight will increase because of this issue," an importer said, adding that import costs will surge. But STS will not be viable if the Indian government decides to stop trading with Iran given that the importer will have to provide a certificate of origin to customs officials, some importers said. "Loading from the UAE is the least risky but it is very expensive so, unless the situation demands us to load from the UAE, it won't happen. The freight will increase by $30-40/t compared with the direct voyage freight if cargo has to be discharged in the UAE and loaded again," said an importer, who is also a vessel owner. Increasing imports of Iran- and Iraq-origin drums from Iran's Bandar Abbas port is also an option, given that drum parcels are typically transshipped through the UAE. But a longer voyage from the Middle East and a longer decantation time in India could slow down domestic trading activity and push contractors to seek cargoes from Indian refiners. Meanwhile, overall seaborne cargo trading activity and discussions have slowed because of internet and communication blackouts in Iran on the back of widespread protests and unrest . Indian importers are unable to reach out to exporters to negotiate. But this has not entirely delayed loading activity in Bandar Abbas."The ongoing protests have not impacted port operations, and ports and customs are working as usual but there is some delays in loading and discharge activities in the night because truck operators have stopped working in the nights," a Middle East-based exporter said, but added that vessel owners are apprehensive to send their vessels to Iran because of sanction worries. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the US Treasury Department's sanctions enforcement arm, sanctioned at least five bitumen tankers operating in the Middle East-India route on 18 December. By Sathya Narayanan Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Italy Falconara refinery shutting for maintenance
Italy Falconara refinery shutting for maintenance
London, 6 January (Argus) — Italian refiner API is in the process of shutting its 83,000 b/d Falconara plant on the country's eastern Adriatic coast for regular winter maintenance that is scheduled to last about a month. The hydroskimming refinery, which typically produces around 350,000-400,000 t/yr of bitumen along with oil products like fuel oil and naphtha, is usually shut for maintenance in the first quarter, partly because of seasonally-weak bitumen demand. Falconara was mainly fed by bitumen-rich Iraqi Kirkuk crude before exports of the grade were halted in March 2023. It received its first Kirkuk cargo in December since crude exports resumed in late September from the Turkish port of Ceyhan. Azerbaijan's state-owned Socar agreed in September to buy API , which also owns the 126,500 b/d Trecate refinery near Milan. API has a third-party processing contract with nearby Alma Petroli's 9,500 b/d Ravenna bitumen-focused refinery, near Falconara. API on occasion exports bitumen cargoes from Ravenna, although Falconara is mainly focused on domestic bitumen truck sales. By Keyvan Hedvat Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
No upstream gain from US' Venezuela intervention
No upstream gain from US' Venezuela intervention
Washington, 5 January (Argus) — The largest US military intervention in Latin America in decades will not significantly boost Venezuela's oil production in the short or medium term even though the White House is improvising a new, oil-centered approach to Caracas. US president Donald Trump has deployed US special forces to remove Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro from power and transport him to face drug trafficking charges in a US court in New York. But the Trump administration has decided to work with the remnants of the Maduro government, calculating that it will now bend Caracas to its will to address US immigration concerns and to carve out a bigger foothold for US companies in Venezuela's oil industry. "We're gonna have the big oil companies go in, and they're gonna fix the infrastructure, they're gonna invest money," Trump told reporters Sunday night. Like many of Trump's initiatives, his Venezuela policy falls into the category he once called having "concepts of a plan" — a complex endeavor where he outlines an end goal but not the means of getting there. A meaningful turnaround in Venezuela's upstream industry requires costly repairs to basic energy infrastructure covering everything from pipelines to power supplies, as well as access to the latest equipment and a skilled labor force that is ready to go. Venezuela's opposition, centered around Maria Corina Machado, laid out a detailed plan for opening Venezuela's oil industry to foreign investment. The plan had the input of former PdV executives and Venezuelan economists forced into exile. But the Trump administration has signalled it has no desire to help Machado take the reins of power in Venezuela. "What we want to do is fix up the oil, fix up the country, bring the country back, and then have elections," Trump said, expressing doubts about Machado's capacity to govern the country. Machado is "fantastic" but "we have short-term things that have to be addressed right away," by working with the existing government, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Sunday. The "short-term things" on the Trump administration's agenda almost certainly involve Venezuelan migrants living in the US, whom it wants to return to Venezuela. Trump on Sunday night doubled down on his comment that the US would "run" Venezuela under its interim president Delcy Rodriguez, who served as Maduro's vice president and oil minister. "We need total access," Trump said, outlining his demands for Rodriguez. "We need access to the oil, and to other things in their country that allow us to rebuild their country." Serving as a loyal servant of Washington would be quite a departure for the regime that made "anti-imperialism" a key tenet of its messaging in the past 27 years. For now, key figures of the regime, including interior minister Diosdado Cabello, are rallying behind Rodriguez, who expressed willingness to cooperate with the White House before being sworn in as the interim president on Monday. Rodriguez took the oath of office in the presence of her brother, the powerful National Assembly president Jorge Rodriguez and Maduro's son Nicolas. Rodriguez immediately signed a decree granting "extraordinary powers" to Cabello-led police forces and to the military, led by defense minister Vladimir Padrino. Maduro on Monday made his first appearance at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, pleading not guilty to the US criminal charges and declaring himself a "prisoner of war". Rodriguez has so far not named a replacement for herself in the position of oil minister. PdV operations continue apace. A Chevron representative in Caracas told Argus , "PdV is bulletproof!". Venezuela's crude output was 934,000 b/d in November, according to an average of Opec secondary sources including Argus . An embargo on Venezuelan crude shipments transported by tankers sanctioned by the US remains in place. But as many as 16 tankers are believed to have left Venezuela in defiance of the US blockade since Maduro's capture, according to vessel tracking website TankerTrackers.com. A sustained disruption to Venezuelan oil exports would primarily affect the global heavy-sour crude market. Chinese independent refiners are preparing to switch to Iranian, Russian or unsanctioned grades, or even lowering their run rates if Venezuelan crude becomes unavailable. Any reconfiguration of Venezuela's oil industry would pit the US against China, whose state-owned firms have been unable to collect on $12bn worth of loan-for-oil schemes because of the US sanctions and Venezuela's falling output. Then there is also the matter of potentially getting the US military involved in another quagmire that Trump has vowed to avoid after costly US engagements in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. The Trump administration says that its military operation in Venezuela is in fact not a military operation but a domestic law enforcement matter that requires no consent from Congress. "The whole foreign policy apparatus thinks everything is Libya, everything is Iraq, everything is Afghanistan," Rubio said. This is not the Middle East, and our mission here is very different. This is the western hemisphere." By Haik Gugarats and Carlos Camacho Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
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