Crude Oil
Yesterday’s trading trading saw remarkable see sawing through the day in the world. In Asia, we saw a mixture of profit taking and fresh shorts as prices rallied $ 48,40 / bbl before dropping receding as fresh selling came in. The picture was repeated with London opening propelling prices to a day high of $ 48.59 before fresh selling drove prices to a low of $ 47.58.
The story was once again repeated in New York trading hours where prices stayed in positive territory till the last hour of trading when $ 48.00 was once again broken.
In the absence of fresh news, we see nothing to prop up prices today, not even the Friday effect as a lot of profit booking seems to have taken place yesterday.
Naphtha
Naphtha has strengthened considerably amidst apprehensions that the premiums on cargoes are likely to go up with the ongoing standoff with Qatar. UAE has re-imposed bans on all vessels going to or from Qatar “regardless of its flag”. This reverses an earlier decision yesterday which allowed entry to non-Qatar owned, flagged or operated vessels. The ban would potentially disrupt the common industry practice of co-loading cargoes from different countries to lower costs of shipping. This will likely push up naphtha premiums of which freight is a big factor.
The June Japan Naphtha- Dubai crack is up at -$1.00 /bbl.
Gasoline
The Gasoline cracks remained stable despite bearish inventory data in Singapore. The onshore light distillates stocks, which mainly comprise gasoline, gained 6 percent to a two-week high of 12.606 million barrels in the week to June 7. This mirrored a gain in gasoline stocks in the United States where inventory of the fuel rose by 3.3 million barrels despite nearing the start of summer driving season when stocks typically decline
June crack is unchanged at $11.50 /bbl.
Distillates
The Distillates market is looking stronger on the back of continuing demand and tightening stocks. The Singapore onshore middle distillate stocks slipped nearly 6 percent to a four-week low of 12.492 million barrels in the week to June 7. On the demand side, IOC of India is likely to continue importing gasoline and diesel as it has lined up an extensive maintenance turnaround plan for its refineries in 2017.
The June crack is up at $ 10.20 /bbl while the June regrade has recovered slightly and is now valued at -$0.10 /bbl.
Fuel Oil
Fuel Oil continues to strengthen in the wake of extremely bullish inventory data. Singapore onshore fuel oil inventories fell 8 percent, or 227,000 tonnes, to a total of 2.62 million tonnes in the week to June 7. That was the lowest level since November 2014 and despite a 7 percent increase in Singapore net imports to a three-week high of 0.83 million tonnes.
The June 180 cst crack is at a significant level of $ 0.10 / bbl/ The visco spread is unchanged at $ 1.35 / bbl.
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.