Crude Oil
Oil prices fell more than 1% on Monday, extending losses that began last week, as investors unwound long positions on concern that OPEC may agree to increase global supply in a meeting this week and Chinese demand may be slipping.
Brent futures settled down 77 cents, or 1.1%, at $63.69. Brent has lost a cumulative 3.7% in the past two sessions. Over the past four months though, it has rallied 72%.
WTI crude settled down 86 cents, or 1.4%, at $60.64 per barrel. It was WTI’s second straight session in the red, leaving it down a cumulative 4.6% since Thursday’s last positive session.
US manufacturing activity increased to a 3-year high in Feb’21, with the ISM manufacturing index increasing to 60.8 amid a surge in new orders, but factories continued to face higher costs for raw materials and other inputs following labor shortages.
Hedge funds have reduced their position in petroleum futures and options for the first time in 16 weeks, selling the equivalent of 9 MMB in the week to 23 Feb’21, the first weekly net sales since the first successful coronavirus vaccine trials.
covid 19
At a global level, the death toll from the COVID-19 virus rose to 2,549,737 (+6,609 DoD) yesterday. The total number of active cases rose by around 170,000 DoD to 21.74 million. (Click here for details)
Naphtha
No fresh news on the naphtha market.
The March crack is higher at $2.55 /bbl
Gasoline
Indian state refiners’ sold 2.22 MMT (+1.5% YoY) of gasoline and 5.81 MMT (-5.3% YoY) of diesel in Feb’21, preliminary industry data showed, as record-high retail prices hit consumption.
The March crack is lower at $7.55 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Gasoline stocks by region.
Distillates
Global flying capacity increased 7.7% WoW to 57.17 million seats in the week starting 1 Mar’21, driven by a jump in northeast and southeast Asia capacity, but was still 46.5% below Jan’20 levels, according to OAG.
The March crack for 500 ppm Gasoil is lower at $5.60 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at $ 6.90 / bbl. The regrade is at -$ 1.30 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Distillate stocks by region.
Fuel Oil
No fresh news on the FO markets.
The March crack for 180 cst FO is higher at -$3.35 /bbl with the visco spread at $0.95 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Fuel Oil stocks by region.
Hedge Recommendations
We shall hedge the April Jap Nap – Dubai crack at current levels of $2.20/bbl.
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.