Crude Oil
Oil prices fell about 1% on Tuesday after rising earlier in the session.
Brent crude fell 49 cents to settle at $44.50 a barrel, while WTI fell 33 cents to $41.61 per barrel.
President Vladimir Putin claimed on Tuesday Russia had become the first country in the world to grant regulatory approval to a COVID-19 vaccine.
Signs of recovering Asian oil demand helped market sentiment. China’s factory deflation eased in July adding to signs of recovery in the world’s second-largest economy.
US crude oil production is expected to fall by 990 KB/D this year to 11.26 MB/D, the US EIA said on Tuesday, a steeper decline than its forecast last month for a decline of 600 KB/D.
Iraq has cut the OSPs of its Basra Light crude for Sep’20 cargoes to Asia, the US and Europe, a document from state marketer SOMO showed on Tuesday.
India’s fuel demand dragged lower in Jul’20 to 15.68 MMT, posting its fifth consecutive YoY decline, government data showed on Tuesday as a spike in coronavirus cases and floods in many parts of the country restricted economic activity.
api data
Yesterday’s API data showed draws across the board which augurs well for demand. We will await the official data tomorrow.
covid 19
At a global level, the death toll from the COVID-19 virus rose to 744,916 (+6,561 DoD) yesterday, with the total number of confirmed infections at 20,511,691 (+266,121 DoD). (Click here for details).
Naphtha
Asia’s naphtha inter month spread flipped into a discount for the first time in about three months on Tuesday.
The price of open-specification naphtha for second-half September was 75 cents below that of second-half October.
The September crack is steady at -$0.15 /bbl.
Gasoline
No fresh news on the gasoline markets
The September crack is steady at $3.15 / bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Gasoline stocks by region.
Distillates
Cash differentials for jet fuel were at a discount of 64 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes on Tuesday, compared with a discount of 61 cents on Friday.
Cash differentials for 10 ppm gasoil flipped to a discount of 9 cents a barrel on Tuesday, hurt by a weaker deal and sluggish buying interest in the physical trading window. They were at a premium of 4 cents on Friday.
The September crack for 500 ppm Gasoil is higher at $5.25 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at $ 6.05 / bbl. The regrade is at -$ 4.50 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Distillate stocks by region.
Fuel Oil
Asia’s 380-cst HSFO cash differential rose to a premium on Tuesday, lifted higher by steady demand for cargoes of the fuel and relatively tight supplies.
Cash premiums for 380-cst were at 24 cents a tonne, up from a discount of 20 cents in the previous session. While pockets of demand for cargoes of 380-cst HSFO continue to lend support to prices of the fuel, a slowdown in physical trade liquidity this month, compared with July, has seen prices ease off recent highs.
A total of 200 KT of HSFO have exchanged hands in the Singapore window this month compared with 600 KT during the same period in July.
The September crack for 180 cst FO is steady at – $3.20 /bbl with the visco spread at $0.90 /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.