Crude Oil
The bulls continued to buy Oil but, by the end of the day, one had to say that they were finding it difficult to push it higher. WTI settled at $ 51.79 /bbl, up 11 cents and Brent at $54.94 / bbl, up 48 cents.
Apart from any fundamental pressure about the intent of OPEC to maintain cuts and non OPEC to implement cuts etc. there would also have been a little technical profit taking at these levels.
Naphtha
Naphtha continues to be hit by high crude prices and ample supplies. Traders expect the market to remain weak through January. Approximately 1.2 million tons of supplies are expected in November. Apparently, cargoes booked for December could be as much as 1.5 million tons
The December and January cracks are currently showing a value of -$1.0 /bbl
Gasoline
For the past week, the Gasoline crack for January has been hovering around $11.0 / bbl. Traders appear to be looking for a cue from the weather to determine the demand for gasoline in the coming few months.
Middle Distillates
The gasoil crack for January has slipped to around $11.0 /bbl as the inventory levels would indicate no shortage of fuel barring an unusually strong winter. Such indications are yet to come as the regrade is also coming off currently showing as value of around $ 1.75 – 1.80 /bbl in January.
Fuel Oil
The Fuel Oil crack in the prompt continued to deteriorate as traders tried to book profits at these high levels. Further, traders would be looking to minimize stock holding at the end of the financial year.
However, the January crack continued to improve indicating that finding appropriate cutter stocks is likely to continue being problematic. The January crack is valued at -$2.40 today, an improvement of around 20 cents / bbl
About this blog
This blog post attempts to give a top level summary of the Singapore market goings on to a person who seeks to obtain a directional sense of the market on a daily basis.