Crude Oil
Oil prices fell for a second day in a row on Tuesday, consolidating ahead of data likely to show another weekly build in U.S. crude stockpiles as refiners in storm-disrupted Texas tried to return to full operations in America’s energy epicenter.
Brent futures settled at $67.52, down 1.1%, after Monday’s 1.6% drop.
WTI crude settled at $64.01 per barrel, losing 1.6% for a second day in a row.
ADNOC set its Apr’21 OSPs for its benchmark Murban crude at +$1.05/bbl to Platts Dubai, up from +$0.75/bbl in the previous month, the company said on Tuesday.
BP has stopped importing oil for its refinery in Western Australia, the country’s largest, and is on track to decommission the plant by the end of March, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
India has asked state refiners to speed up the diversification of oil imports to gradually cut their dependence on the Middle East after OPEC+ decided last week to largely continue production cuts in April, two sources said.
api data
The API has reported another large build in crude stocks yesterday afternoon. However, given the discrepancy in the two reports in the previous weeks, this could well be just adjustments for the difference. The large product draws need to be reconfirmed by the DOE today.
covid 19
At a global level, the death toll from the COVID-19 virus rose to 2,621,162 (+8,970 DoD) yesterday. The total number of active cases fell by around 30,000 DoD to 21.69 million. (Click here for details)
Naphtha
Asia’s naphtha crack weakened on Tuesday for a second straight session falling to $110.60 per tonne, the lowest since Feb. 26, from $114.45 per tonne in the previous session.
The April crack is lower at $1.10 /bbl
Gasoline
Asia’s gasoline crack inched up to $4.38 per barrel, 2 cents higher than on Monday.
The April crack is higher at $7.65 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Gasoline stocks by region.
Distillates
Asia’s cash differentials for 10 ppm gasoil narrowed to 24 cents on Tuesday, 3 cents higher than the previous day.
Asia’s cash differentials for jet fuel climbed for a third consecutive session on Tuesday, helped by firmer buying interest in the physical market, as China and India drive a moderate rise in regional aviation demand.
Cash differentials for jet fuel narrowed to 41 cents per barrel to Singapore quotes on Tuesday, compared with a discount of 46 cents per barrel a day earlier.
Global scheduled flight seat capacity this week was 45.3% lower compared with the corresponding week in 2019, with China being the only exception where seat capacity was 5.7% higher than the same week in pre-pandemic 2019, according to aviation data firm OAG.
India was the next closest to pre-COVID-19 seat capacity at 22.6% below 2019 levels, OAG data showed.
The April crack for 500 ppm Gasoil is higher at $5.95 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at $ 6.75 / bbl. The regrade is at -$ 1.65 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Distillate stocks by region.
Fuel Oil
Asia’s 0.5% very low-sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) cash premium and front-month time spread fell on Tuesday as the near-term supply outlook improved.
Cash premiums extended losses to a fourth straight session, hitting a more than two-month low of $1.13 a tonne to Singapore quotes, down from $125 a tonne on Monday.
The front-month time spread slipped to a two-month low of $1.75 a tonne, according to Refinitiv data in Eikon.
Western arbitrage arrivals were expected to total over 3.1 million tonnes in March compared with about 2.5 million tonnes in the previous month, the sources said.
The April crack for 180 cst FO is higher at -$3.30 /bbl with the visco spread at $1.05 /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.