Crude prices posted their first weekly loss since mid-May as worries about trouble within OPEC tempered the bull market for oil.
Brent Crude settled at $75.55, up $1.43, or 1.9%, on the day. Brent did a final pre-weekend trade of $75.59. For the week, it lost 0.8%.
WTI crude futures settled Friday’s trade at $1.62, up 2.2%, at $74.56. On Monday, WTI hit a 2014 high of $76.98 and Friday, it did a final pre-weekend trade of $74.63. For the week, it fell 0.6%.
The spread of coronavirus variants and unequal access to vaccines threaten the global economic recovery, finance chiefs of the G20 large economies warned on Saturday.
U.S. oil rigs rose 2 to 378 this week, their highest since April 2020.
At a global level, the death toll from the COVID-19 virus rose to 4.05 Million (+6,508 DoD) yesterday. The total number of active cases shot up by 10,000 DoD to 11.99 million. (Click here for details).
A Reuters tally of new COVID-19 infections shows them rising in 69 countries, with the daily rate pointing upwards since late-June and now hitting 478,000.
Asia’s naphtha crack rose by nearly 4% to $127.53 a tonne. Demand for the petrochemical feedstock is firm in Europe and Asia, a third source said, adding that naphtha demand as a gasoline blending component in Europe is also expected to increase in summer.
The August crack is higher at $3.10 / bbl
Asia’s gasoline rose to $8.87 a barrel on Friday, up from $8.14 in the previous session.
Singapore’s light distillate inventories jumped 12% to their highest in nearly three months at 14.25 million barrels in the week to July 7, Enterprise Singapore data showed. The inventories were last higher in the week to April 14 and were slightly above the 2021 weekly average of 14.18 million barrels, the data showed.
The August crack is higher at $10.90 / bbl
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Gasoline stocks by region.
Cash differentials for 10 ppm gasoil, which have stayed in a negative territory for the last three weeks, were at a discount of 11 cents per barrel on Friday, compared with a 15-cent discount a day earlier.
ARA Gasoil inventories dropped 2.6% to 2.3 million tonnes in the week ended July 7, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed..
Cash differentials for jet fuel were at 40 cents per barrel to Singapore quotes, compared with a discount of 45 cents per barrel a day earlier.
The August crack for 500 ppm Gasoil is higher at $7.00 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at $ 8.50 /bbl. The regrade is at -$ 0.75 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Distillate stocks by region.
Asia’s front-month crack for 0.5% very low-sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) climbed on Friday, supported by active buying interests for physical cargoes amid tight supplies.
The front-month VLSFO crack rose to $12.22 per barrel against Dubai crude during Asian trade on Friday, up from $12.11 per barrel a day earlier. The crack, however, has slipped 1.6% this week.
Cash differentials for Asia’s 0.5% VLSFO were at a premium of $1.21 a tonne to Singapore quotes on Friday, compared with $1.25 per tonne on Thursday.
Asia’s cash premium for 180-cst high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) dipped $1.32 per tonne to Singapore quotes on Friday, hurt by two weaker deals in the physical trade window.
ARA residual fuel oil inventories fell 14.3% to 1.2 million tonnes in the week to July 7, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.
The August crack for 180 cst FO is lower at -$6.65 /bbl with the visco spread at $1.20 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Fuel Oil stocks by region.
No fresh trades today. We will lay on one tranche more of Jap-Nap Dubai should the crack climb above $ 3.50 per 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.