Crude Oil
Oil prices were up about 1% to the highest in more than three months on Thursday as the year drew towards a close. Brent crude settled 72 cents higher at $67.92 a barrel, and WTI rose 57 cents to $61.68 a barrel.
Both benchmarks were their strongest since Sept. 17.
There was no sign of the Urals crude loading plan for January 2020 on Thursday, with sources saying that a stand-off over Russian oil supplies to Belarus in 2020 was behind the delay.
U.S. jobless claims decreased 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 222,000 for the week ended 21st Dec according to the Labour Department in a sign of ongoing labour market strength.
Profits at China’s industrial firms in November grew 5.4% from a year earlier to 593.9 billion yuan ($84.93 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday.
Naphtha
Asia’s naphtha crack fell to a two-day session low of $94.73 a tonne on Thursday in muted year-end trade.
The January crack is higher at – $ 3.15 / bbl.
Gasoline
Asia’s gasoline crack also fell, hitting a four-session low of $5.63 per barrel as supplies built.
Singapore light distillates stocks rose 395 kb to reach a two-week high of 12.66 million barrels in the week to Dec. 25, data from Enterprise Singapore showed.
China had shipped close to 120,400 tonnes of gasoline to Singapore, bringing the total for December arrival there to around 690 KT versus nearly 910 KT in November.
The January crack is higher at $ 6.90 /bbl
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Gasoline stocks by region.
Distillates
Cash premiums for 10 ppm gasoil were at 75 cents per barrel over Singapore quotes, compared with a premium of 67 cents a barrel in the last trading session on Tuesday.
Cash differentials for jet fuel, however, fell to a premium of 6 cents per barrel to Singapore quotes, compared with a 13-cent premium on Tuesday.
Singapore middle distillates stocks fell by 371 kb to reach 10.50 million barrels in the week to Dec. 25, data from Enterprise Singapore showed.
The January crack for 500 ppm Gasoil is higher at $ 14.70 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at $ 15.50 / bbl. The regrade is at $ 0.10 /bbl
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Distillate stocks by region.
Fuel Oil
Asia’s cash premiums for 380-cst high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) edged lower on Thursday as the market continues to be weighed down by falling demand ahead of a switch to cleaner marine fuels from next year.
The cash premium for 380-cst HSFO was at $10.19 per tonne to Singapore quotes on Thursday, compared with $10.65 in the last trading session on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, residual fuel oil inventories in the Singapore fuel oil trading and storage hub climbed to a two-week high of 20.24 million barrels in the week ended Dec. 25.
The January 380-cst barge crack widened its discount to minus $29.34 a barrel, compared with minus $27.68 on Tuesday.
The front-month 0.5% very low-sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) crack traded at $26.45 a barrel against Dubai crude on Thursday.
The January 180 cst crack is lower at -$ 21.20 / bbl with the visco spread at $ 1.35 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Fuel Oil stocks by region.
Hedge Recommendations
4Q20 Jet cracks have touched $ 19.00/bbl. We will therefore hedge one tranche at this level.
Hedge recommendations are essentially made for refiners. These are not trading positions as such. The rationale of these positions is to lock in extraordinary levels for the refiner.
Click Here to see how all our recommendations have fared
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.