Crude Oil
Oil prices ended the trading session marginally higher on Monday supported by market talk that Saudi Arabia and Russia appear to be in favour of extending the output cuts till the end of 2017. Brent rose by $ 0.24/bbl to settle at $49.34/bbl while WTI rose by $0.41 /bbl settle at $ 46.63/bbl.
Although the chart is beginning to show some signs of a reversal (going by the action in the last 3 days), we will need to witness quite a bit of up move before getting into a bullish mindset. The immediate resistance levels are 50.30 & 51.00 on Brent.
In other news, India’s top refiner, IOCL, announced that it is in initial talks with Saudi Aramco for downstream investments, including a mega project on its west coast.
Naphtha
The naptha cracks fell as spot demand remains muted in the wake of high gasoline stocks in the U.S. and Europe. With high gasoline stocks, the demand for naphtha (used as a blending component) is impacted quite severely. The outlook continues to remain bearish.
The Japan Naphtha – Dubai crack for May fell to – $ 0.40 /bbl. The Singapore Naphtha – Dubai crack is valued at -$ 1.70 /bbl.
Gasoline
Although the gasoline stockpiles remain high, the gasoline cracks showed an improvement on the back of buying interest in the market.
The Singapore crack for May is valued at $ 10.45 /bbl.
Distillates
The Distillate market witnessed a strong improvement on account of import tenders issued by both Indonesia and Kenya
The May Gasoil crack is valued at $ 10.40 / bbl whilst the Jet May crack is at $10.00/bbl
Fuel Oil
The market continues to witness a lot of buying interest especially of low viscosity fuel as there appears to be a shortage of cutter stock in Singapore. The cracks however have yet to factor in this bullishness and are trading at levels similar to what was seen last week.
The May 180cst-Dubai crack is unchanged at -$ 2.15 / bbl with the Visco spread 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.