Oil prices rose on Friday on hopes of a fuel demand recovery in the United States and Europe as economic growth picks up and lockdowns ease, but worries about India’s raging second wave of COVID-19 cases kept a lid on gains.
Brent crude futures rose 21 cents, or 0.3%, to $65.61 a barrel at 0137 GMT, after climbing 8 cents on Thursday.
WTI crude jumped 29 cents, or 0.5%, to $61.72 a barrel, also after an 8 cent gain on Thursday.
“The market shrugged off last week’s (U.S. oil) inventory build, instead comforted by the continued improvement in gasoline demand,” ANZ analysts said in a note. U.S. refiner Valero said gasoline and diesel demand were back to 93% and 100% of the levels they were at before the pandemic, with chief commercial officer Gary Simmons saying the company is “pretty bullish on gasoline going forward”.
Libya’s oil production fell to about 1 MMB/D in recent days and could drop further due to budgetary issues, the NOC said on Thursday. Production fell from about 1.3 MMB/D.
IOC’s refineries are operating at about 95% of their capacity, down from 100% at the same time last month, with industry officials saying there could deeper reductions in output from the country’s refineries in coming days..
At a global level, the death toll from the COVID-19 virus rose to 3,084,467 (+13,388 DoD) yesterday. The total number of active cases rose by around 190,000 DoD to 18.65 million. (Click here for details).
India recorded the world’s highest daily tally of 314,835 COVID-19 infections on Thursday as a second wave of the pandemic raised new fears about the ability of crumbling health services to cope.
Asia’s naphtha fell for a fourth straight session on Wednesday as concerns about India’s fuel demand weighed on the gasoline market.
The crack weakened by 0.6% to $74.90 /MT from $75.33 the previous day.
The May crack is higher at -$ 0.40 /bbl
Asia’s gasoline crack fell by 30 cents to $6.56 a barrel on Thursday.
This is the lowest in nearly a week after U.S. gasoline stocks rose slightly last week. This was despite a drop in Singapore stocks to the lowest in four months.
Singapore’s light distillates stocks fell 1.268 million barrels to a four-month low of 13.472 million barrels in the week to April 21, Enterprise Singapore data showed on Thursday.
The May crack is higher at $9.05 /bbl
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Gasoline stocks by region.
Asia’s cash differentials for 10 ppm gasoil dropped for the ninth consecutive session on Thursday, plunging to their weakest level in more than five months amid sluggish demand, while Singapore middle distillate inventories rose to a four-week high.
Asia’s cash differentials for 10 ppm gasoil sank further to a discount of 44 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes, the widest since November 2, 2020.
Jet fuel cash differentials were at minus 9 cents a barrel on Thursday, up from minus 11 cents on the previous day.
Singapore’s middle distillate inventories rose 0.4% to 13.5 million barrels in the week to April 21, according to Enterprise Singapore data.
The May crack for 500 ppm Gasoil is higher at $5.55 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at $ 6.70 /bbl. The regrade is at -$ 0.45 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Distillate stocks by region.
Asia’s 0.5% very low-sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) market front-month time spread slipped to a three-week low of 50 cents a tonne on Thursday as ample rising supplies and sluggish bunker demand weighed on sentiment, trade sources said.
Onshore fuel oil stocks climbed by 855,000 barrels, or about 135,000 tonnes, to 24.813 million barrels, or 3.908 million tonnes, Enterprise Singapore data showed.
The May crack for 180 cst FO is lower at -$3.15 /bbl with the visco spread at $0.80 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Fuel Oil stocks by region.
No fresh action today.
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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.