Malaysia's Petronas sold 300,000 barrels of Kidurong crude for February loading at a $3-a-barrel premium to Tapis APPI, a company source said.
The sale followed a trade earlier this week for benchmark Tapis crude at a $2.80-a-barrel premium, a price differential not seen in almost two years.
Petronas was offering 450,000 barrels of Labuan for February loading at a $3-a-barrel premium to Tapis APPI.
Some traders dismissed the levels fetched as too high but added that colder-than-expected weather was bringing support to Malaysian grades, most of which are middle-distillate rich. "Demand is up for middle distillate-rich crudes. Winter in North Asia is colder than expected," a trader with a major said.
Japan's kerosene stocks fell 8.6 percent last week from the week before, dropping to 3.74 million kilolitres (23.52 million barrels) in the December 24 week, the Petroleum Association of Japan (PAJ) said.
"Kerosene demand from the north has been strong, but it's not that unusual. What's so significant this year is the very strong demand from western Japan, which usually does not use much kerosene," Naokazu Tsuda, Nippon Oil's executive vice president, said at a news conference on Wednesday.
A cold snap across most of Japan has kept temperatures below normal levels since mid-November. The chill has brought heavy snow to the north, as well as western Japan, where people rarely see snowfall.
Japan's Meteorological Agency has forecast temperatures will be normal or lower-than-normal for January and northern Japan may have heavier-than-usual snow.
Vietnam's medium sweet Bunga Kekwa crude benefited from the surge in interest with Petechim awarding its regular monthly tender at a stronger premium of 50 to 80 cents a barrel to Tapis quotes, traders said.
Petechim also issued two more tenders to sell February crude.
A tender to sell Bach Ho crude closed on Wednesday with bids to remain valid until Friday.
Petechim also issued a tender to sell 400,000 to 500,000 barrels of light sweet Ruby crude for loading in February, traders said.
India and Taiwan, two major buyers of West African crude, have tendered to buy sweet crude. Indian Oil Corp, has issued a tender to buy sweet crude for February and March liftings, a trading source said.
Taiwan's Chinese Petroleum Corp is seeking its regular monthly sweet crude cargoes for February loading. CPC bought three very large crude carriers (VLCCs) of West African crude oil via its previous tender for January-loading sweet grades.
The Tapis/Brent Exchange For Swaps for February stood at around $3.15 a barrel, a trader said.
February Brent crude was at $56.35 a barrel at 1029 GMT some 20 cents higher than around the same time on Tuesday.