Crude Oil
Oil prices ended Monday slightly higher on the US Columbus Day holiday. Brent settled 17 cents higher at $55.79 /bbl. WTI settled 29 cents higher at $ 49.58 /bbl.
Markets were trading in an uncertain fashion with Brent hitting an intra day low of $ 55.07 /bbl before recovering to close higher.
Units that were shut down as a precautionary measure in the advent of Tropical storm Nate have commenced restarting of operations. Not much damage appears to have been done. However, crude production in the US may be hit this week as about 1.62 mb/d (over 85%) of the Gulf of Mexico oil product was offline over the weekend and even Monday.
In other news, Saudi has cut its November allocations by 560 Kb/d according to an oil ministry spokesman. Saudi Arabia will ship 7.15 mb/d for the next month.
Naphtha
The easing of Nate from a category 1 hurricane on Sunday to a tropical depression on Monday saw the naphtha crack settle lower at $ 96 / MT. Nevertheless, the H2 Nov / H2 Dec spread remains firmly backwardated at $ 4.50 / MT (or 50 cents / barrel).
The paper crack however, has strengthened to $ 2.85 /bbl
Gasoline
The physical Gasoline crack too has settled lower at $ 9.55 /bbl in the wake of the passing of Nate.
The October 92 Ron crack is unchanged at $ 11.30 /bbl.
Distillates
While cash differentials for gasoil increased on Monday, the crack continued to ease out.
Going forward China is seen to be taking strong steps to incentivize the sale of LNG fuelled vehicles as a key part of its battle against smog.
The October crack is valued today at $12.85 /bbl. The regrade is valued at -$ 0.30 /bbl
Fuel Oil
Fuel Oil time spreads, particularly for 380 cSt have weakened under steady selling pressure as the market sees better supplies in the coming months. However, firm demand in the prompt has kept cash premiums fairly steady.
The October 180 cSt crack is valued lower at -$2.50 / bbl. The visco spread is steady at $ 0.55 /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.
Disclaimer : All the views are the author’s personal views. These do not constitute an advice to buy or sell any commodity