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* Unipec charters carrier to store crude; Total on thelookout
* Bets on price recovery in Q4, oil contango to cover somecosts
By Keith Wallis and Florence Tan
SINGAPORE, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Trading companies operating inAsia are seeking to charter supertankers to temporarily storecrude, shipping and trade sources said on Thursday, hoping forhighher prices with the coming Northern Hemisphere winter.
A state Chinese trading company has already made a booking,while a second trader, reluctant to sell its cargoes after spotdifferentials hit multi-year lows, is in talks to charter avessel. Another four have been looking for ships, the sourcessaid.
Oil benchmarks in Europe and the Middle East are also intheir strongest contango market structure since 2010, anindication that prices could rise in the last quarter of theyear to help cover storage costs and earn a profit.
Brent futures flipped into steep contango - when futureprices are higher than spot - last month, encouraging Europeantrading firms to store North Sea and African oil onboardsuezmaxes in Africa.
"Freight is cheap and the oil price is relatively low," ashipping source in Asia said. "We're going into winter so demandis very likely to get stronger."
Unipec, the trading arm of Asia's largest refiner Sinopec , has booked a tanker to store crude, whileTotsa, the trading unit of French energy firm Total,is in search of a ship to hold oil in the Middle East, shippingand trade sources said.
Four other western and Japanese companies are also seekingships, the sources said.
Unipec chartered the ultra large crude carrier (ULCC) TIEurope around Aug. 20 to store crude off Singapore, twoshipbrokers said. Unipec is paying $25,600 a day for six monthsfor the ship that can store around 3 million barrels of oil.
A trader said Unipec's charter may be used to store sweetcrude produced in Asia and West Africa, which Chinese buyerssnapped up in September when spot differentials hit multi-yearlows.
MIDEAST
Sellers could also store Middle East crude loading inSeptember and October after differentials for those gradesslumped to multi-year lows.
"I believe that contango and differentials may justify it,"a trader with a Western firm said, adding that very large crudecarriers (VLCCs) - which hold 2 million barrels - are very cheapin the Middle East.
Freight rates for a one-year charter for VLCC have averagedjust over $26,000 a day this year, according to data fromBritish shipping services agency Clarkson.
Totsa's shipping arm CSSA is in talks to charter a VLCC tostore crude in the Middle East from September for a year with anoption to extend for another two years, the shipping source inAsia said.
Japan's JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp and Mitsui &Co are among the firms which have asked ship brokersfor prices to charter VLCCs for short term storage, twoshipbrokers said. Short-term storage involves leasing tankersfor 30-60 days.
Dutch trader Trafigura and oil major Shell are also looking at ships, said one Singapore-basedVLCC ship broker.
Still, some traders said the Dubai contango isn't steepenough to cover storage costs and profits will depend on a spikein demand to lift prices.
"I don't think oil refiners will take on too much risk tostore and trade," a Japanese trader said. (Reporting by Keith Wallis, Florence Tan, JacobGronholt-Pedersen, Jane Xie in Singapore and Osamu Tsukimori inTokyo; Writing by Florence Tan; Editing by Aaron Sheldrick andTom Hogue)
