Crude Oil
Oil prices soared on Tuesday, as some European and Asian countries along with several U.S. states began to ease coronavirus lockdown measures.
Brent crude settled $ 3.77 higher at $30.97 /bbl. WTI futures gained $ 4.17 to settle at $24.56 /bbl.
The rally extended Brent crude’s gains to six straight days, while U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate has now rallied for five consecutive sessions.
Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports in May’20 are expected to drop to about 6 MB/D the lowest in almost a decade, and domestic refining output is likely to fall as the coronavirus crisis hits demand, industry sources and analysts say.
The US trade deficit increased by the most in more than a year in Mar’20, increasing 11.6%, as a record drop in exports offset a shrinking import bill, suggesting the novel coronavirus outbreak was upending the global flow of goods and services.
api data
The gasoline draw was significantly larger than expected which may be suggesting that people have resumed driving in the US.
Covid 19
At a global level, the death toll from the COVID-19 virus rose to 258,027 (+5,787 DoD) yesterday, with the total number of confirmed infections at 3,724,518(+81,247 DoD). (Click here for details).
Naphtha
Asia’s naphtha crack more than doubled on Tuesday to $26.28 a tonne in a market lacking a definite direction as excess supplies overshadow demand.
Total naphtha flows into Asia for May have been provisionally assessed at up to 6 million tonnes, expanding sharply from April’s total of about 5 million tonnes due to a jump in incoming cargoes from the West including Europe. May’s volumes also surpassed the year-to-date (YTD) monthly average of up to 5.7 million tonnes.
The May crack has improved further to -$0.90 / bbl.
Gasoline
Asia’s gasoline crack was at a discount of $4.33 a barrel to Brent, versus a discount of $4.75 a barrel in the previous day.
The May crack has recovered to -$0.80 /bbl
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Gasoline stocks by region.
Distillates
Cash discounts for jet fuel were at $4.29 a barrel to Singapore quotes on Tuesday, compared with $4.65 per barrel on Monday.
The May/June time spread for the aviation fuel in Singapore traded at a discount of $3.75 per barrel on Tuesday.
Cash discounts for 10 ppm gasoil were at $1.46 per barrel to Singapore quotes on Tuesday, compared with a discount of $1.58 per barrel a day earlier.
The May crack for 500 ppm Gasoil is lower at $3.20 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at $ 5.40 / bbl. The regrade is at -$ 9.10 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Distillate stocks by region.
Fuel Oil
The front-month contango for 0.5% VLSFO was at its narrowest discount in more than a month on Tuesday. The front-month VLSFO time spread narrowed to minus $7.75 a tonne on Tuesday, its narrowest discount since April 1 and up from minus $9 in the previous session.
The May crack for 180 cst FO is higher at -$2.35 /bbl with the visco spread at $0.90 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Fuel Oil stocks by region.
Hedge Recommendations
No fresh action for today.
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 refinery.
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.