Crude Oil
Oil prices fell further on Friday as inflation fears continued to spread panic across all markets.
Brent futures fell $ 1.37 to $64.42 a barrel. WTI crude shed $2.03 to settle at $61.50 per barrel.
For the week, Brent gained 5% while WTI gained 4%. For the month, both crudes gained nearly 18%
This morning, prices have jumped up by over a dollar in the wake of the US House approving a stimulus package of $1.9 trillion.
Iran on Sunday ruled out holding an informal meeting with the US and other major powers to discuss ways to salvage the unravelling 2015 nuclear deal, insisting Washington must first lift all its unilateral sanctions.
Iran, on Sunday, ruled out holding an informal meeting with the US and other major powers to discuss ways to salvage the unravelling 2015 nuclear deal, insisting Washington must first lift all its unilateral sanctions.
US energy firms added 4 oil rigs in the week to 26 Feb’21 to total 309 (-369 YoY), according to Baker Hughes. All of the oil rig additions this week were in the Permian Basin in West Texas, prompting some analysts to question how producers were able to start drilling again so quickly after last week’s deep freeze.
Money managers raised their net long US crude futures and options positions by 2,607 contracts to total 402,543 in the week to 23 Feb’21, the US CFTC said on Friday.
covid 19
At a global level, the death toll from the COVID-19 virus rose to 2,542,556 (+5,970 DoD) yesterday. The total number of active cases rose by around 10,000 DoD to 21.91 million. (Click here for details)
Naphtha
No fresh news on the naphtha market.
The March crack is higher at $2.25 /bbl
Gasoline
No fresh news on the gasoline market.
The March crack is higher at $7.95 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Gasoline stocks by region.
Distillates
Cash differentials for gasoil with 10 ppm sulphur content were at a discount of 2 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes, one cent lower than the previous day.
Gasoil stocks held independently in ARA rose 1.1% to 2.6 million tonnes in the week to Feb. 25, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed. Jet stocks climbed 7% to 999,000 tonnes.
Cash differentials for jet fuel were at a discount of 31 cents per barrel to Singapore quotes on Friday, one cent higher than on Thursday.
The March crack for 500 ppm Gasoil is lower at $6.05 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at $ 7.30 / bbl. The regrade is at -$ 1.20 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Distillate stocks by region.
Fuel Oil
Asia’s front-month price differentials between 0.5% very low-sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) and high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO), also known as HiLo or sulphur spread, dropped on Friday, erasing sharp weekly gains and retreating from a near one-year high hit on Thursday.
The front-month HiLo spread dropped to $124.75 a tonne on Friday, down from a more than 11-month high of $129.50 touched in the previous session and slightly above $124.50 at the start of the week, according to Refinitiv data in Eikon.
Fuel oil stocks in ARA edged down 22,000 tonnes to 1.636 million tonnes in the week ended Feb. 25, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global (IG) showed.
VLSFO cash differentials rose by 2 cents to $2.83 /MT.
180 cSt HSFO cash differentials rose by 30 cents / MT to a premium of $0.61/ MT.
The 380 cSt HSFO differentials rose by 26 cents to a premium of $0.16 /MT.
The March crack for 180 cst FO is higher at -$3.65 /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 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.