Crude Oil
Crude oil futures continued to rise but the gains were muted. Brent crude futures gained 31 cents to settle at $66.30 a barrel. U.S. crude gained 44 cents to settle at $56.66 a barrel.
The uncertainty gripping the market can be highlighted by the fact that yesterday’s low of $65.74 was reached after the high of $ 67.00.
Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA this week declared a maritime emergency, citing trouble accessing tankers and personnel to export its oil due to sanctions.
Importers continue to talk with the USA remain in talks over potential extensions to the waiver of sanctions against Iran. India wants to keep buying Iranian oil at its current level of about 300 kbpd
To stimulate a struggling euro zone economy, the European Central Bank pushed out the timing of its first post-crisis rate hike to next year at the earliest and offered banks new rounds of multi-year cash.
Naphtha
No fresh news on Naphtha markets today.
The March crack is lower at -$ 6.40 /bbl
Gasoline
Asia’s gasoline rose for the fourth straight session to hover around a near five-month high of $5.09 a barrel as supplies tightened on demand and refinery maintenance.
Singapore’s onshore light distillates stocks fell by about 7.8 percent of 1.311 million barrels to reach a seven-week low of about 15.6 million barrels in the week to March 6.
The March crack is slightly higher at $ 4.00 /bbl
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Gasoline stocks by region.
Distillates
Asia’s jet fuel and 10ppm gasoil margins fell to two-week lows of $13.84 a barrel and $15.37 a barrel respectively, hurt by rising raw material crude oil costs. Inventories were marginally higher with Singapore’s middle distillates stocks having edged up 9,000 barrels to a six-week high of 12.244 million barrels in the week to March 6.
The March crack is lower at $ 13.85 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at $14.80 /bbl. The regrade is higher at – $ 0.25 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Distillate stocks by region.
Fuel Oil
The front-month 380-cst barge fuel oil crack extended losses on Thursday, widening its discount to Brent as crude oil prices gained. The April crack slipped to minus $3.23 a barrel to Brent crude from minus $3.05 a barrel in the previous session.
Singapore fuel oil inventories fell to a four-week low in the week ending March 6 as weekly net imports of the fuel fell to an eight-month low.
The March180 cst crack is lower at $ 1.25 / bbl with the visco spread at 80 cents/bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Fuel Oil stocks by region.
Hedge Recommendations
No fresh hedges 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.
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.