Crude Oil
Oil futures fell on Friday, ahead of a hurricane near the Florida coast that could dampen demand. Brent crude futures settled 65 cents higher at $ 60.43 /bbl. WTI crude futures settled $ 1.61 cents lower at $55.10 /bbl.
This week WTI gained by 1.7% and Brent by 1.8%, their highest weekly increase since early July, boosted by an easing of U.S.-China trade rhetoric. For the month of August, however, Brent posted a monthly drop of 7.3%, and WTI fell by 6%.
U.S. crude oil output fell for a second straight month in June, dropping by 33 kbpd to 12.08 million bpd, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a monthly report released on Friday. Cushing stocks have dropped by over 300,000 barrels since the government report, citing market intelligence firm Genscape’s midweek report. The drop came after two new pipelines opened in the Permian Basin this month, flowing crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast and tightening supplies at Cushing.
U.S. energy firms cut 12 oil rigs in the week to Aug. 30, bringing the total count down to 742. The rig count declined for the ninth straight month to its lowest level since January last year.
OPEC’s oil output rose 80 kbpd in August, the first monthly increase this year. Russia’s oil output in August was slightly higher than levels agreed under its output deal with OPEC+, but Moscow is still aiming to comply fully with the deal, RIA and Interfax news agencies cited Energy Minister Alexander Novak as saying.
Naphtha
Asia’s naphtha crack fell to a near 2-1/2-month low of $10.75 a tonne on Friday as concerns of a supply glut weighed on the market.
Naphtha stocks in ARA rose 39% in the week to Thursday to a three-week high of 231 KT. The rise was due to several deliveries from Algeria for gasoline blending demand as well as fading petrochemical demand.
The September crack is lower at -7.20 / bbl.
Gasoline
Asia’s gasoline crack fell to a three-session low of $6.10 a barrel, erasing firm gains made in the previous session amid active trade for physical cargoes in the Singapore trading window.
Gasoline stocks in ARA gained marginally as the closed arbitrage to the United States was offset by some demand from West Africa as well as from inland Germany because of an outage at a gasoline-making unit of a refinery.
The September crack is higher at $ 7.30 /bbl
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Gasoline stocks by region.
Distillates
Cash premiums for gasoil with 10ppm sulphur content climbed to 32 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes, up from a premium of 21 cents per barrel a day earlier.
Gasoil stocks in ARA dropped marginally by 23 KT to 2.76 million tonnes.
Cash premiums for jet fuel slipped to 11 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes on Friday, from 19 cents per barrel on Thursday.
The physical market for the aviation fuel in the Singapore trading window remained muted with no bids or trades on Friday.
The September crack for 500 ppm Gasoil is higher at $ 15.80 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at $ 16.65 / bbl. The regrade is at + $ 0.25 /bbl
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Distillate stocks by region.
Fuel Oil
Asia’s cash premium for 380-cst high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) retreated on Friday from a record high set in the previous session as deal values in the Singapore window eased from their recent highs. The cash premium for 380-cst HSFO fell to $35.84 a tonne to Singapore quotes on Friday, from a record of $40 per tonne in the previous session.
Fuel oil stocks in ARA increased marginally by 35 KT to 1.2 million tonnes.
The September 180 cst crack is lower at – 6.05 / bbl with the visco spread at $ 1.15 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Fuel Oil stocks by region.
Hedge Recommendations
No fresh recommendations for 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 refiner.
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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.