Crude Oil
Crude prices fell more than 1% Monday, pulling benchmark Brent back from highs above $70 per barrel, after it became apparent that the drone attack on a Saudi oil facility by the Yemeni Houthis did not cause the kingdom any loss in production.
Brent futures got to as high as $71.38 per barrel after the raid on the port, breaching $70 the first time since January, before falling back. It settled the session at $68.24, down $1.12, or 1.6% from Friday’s close.
WTI crude also settled down 1.6%, or $1.04, at $65.05 per barrel.
Saudi Arabia made good on its pledge to cut an additional 1 MMB/D of its crude production in Feb’21, driving total output by OPEC and its Russia-led allies to a four-month low of 37.83 MMB/D, according to the latest S&P Global Platts survey.
Iran has quietly moved record amounts of crude oil to top client China in recent months, while India’s state refiners have added Iranian oil to their annual import plans on the assumption that U.S. sanctions on the OPEC supplier will soon ease, according to six industry sources and Refinitiv data.
Hedge funds sold petroleum for the second week running, selling the equivalent of 11 MB in the week ending 2 Mar’21.
covid 19
At a global level, the death toll from the COVID-19 virus rose to 2,611,722 (+6,431 DoD) yesterday. The total number of active cases fell by around 170,000 DoD to 21.72 million. (Click here for details)
Naphtha
Asia’s gasoline and naphtha cracks weakened on Monday as Brent oil futures climbed above $70 a barrel in early Asian trade following attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities.
The Naphtha crack to Brent fell to $114.45 per tonne from a 14-month-high of $119.95 per tonne in the previous session.
The April crack is lower at $1.15 /bbl
Gasoline
Asia’s gasoline crack weakened to $4.36 per barrel from $4.86 per barrel last Friday.
The April crack is higher at $7.35 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Gasoline stocks by region.
Distillates
Asia’s cash differentials for 10 ppm gasoil dropped to their weakest level in more than a month on Monday, hurt by sluggish buying interests for physical cargoes, while prompt-month spread for the industrial fuel grade deepened its contango structure.
Cash discounts for 10 ppm gasoil widened by a cent to 27 cents per barrel to Singapore quotes, the biggest discounts since Jan. 27.
The March/April time spread, which flipped into a contango last week, traded at minus 15 cents per barrel on Monday, compared with minus 5 cents on Friday, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.
Cash differentials for jet fuel were at a discount of 46 cents per barrel to Singapore quotes on Monday, up 2 cents from last week.
Global scheduled airline capacity has increased 1.4% for the week starting 8 Mar’21, to 57.9 million seats, driven by Northeast Asia and North America gains, but still 54% down YoY, according to aviation data company OAG.
The April crack for 500 ppm Gasoil is higher at $5.75 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at $ 6.55 / bbl. The regrade is at -$ 1.65 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Distillate stocks by region.
Fuel Oil
Asian cash premiums for cargoes of 0.5% very low-sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) fell to a 2021 low on Monday, as suppliers offered down cargoes of the fuel but failed to find any buyers. The cash premium fell to $1.25 a tonne on Monday, its lowest since Dec. 30.
The April crack for 180 cst FO is higher at -$3.40 /bbl with the visco spread at $1.00 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Fuel Oil stocks by region.
Hedge Recommendations
No fresh action 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.