Crude Oil
Oil prices settled higher on Monday amid an uptick in sentiment after Saudi Arabia said its oil minister held talks with counterparts over the possibility of extending the supply-cut agreement beyond March 2018. Brent settled up 6 cents at $53.84 /bbl while WTI rose by 59 cents to settle at $48.07 /bbl
Hurricane Irma which slammed into Florida on Sunday, left more than 7.4 million homes and businesses without power, but has since been downgraded to a tropical storm. Fortunately, the damage to oil infrastructure was minimal.
Oil prices have moved marginally lower in early Asian trading this morning, as traders weighed up the dampening effect on demand of Hurricane Irma versus refinery restarts in the wake of Hurricane Harvey that should lead to more crude oil processing.
Naphtha
Asian naphtha cracks have weakened slightly but the current value is still reflective of a strong market as demand remains robust. India’s IOC is learnt to have sold 35,000 MT of naphtha for Sep 30 to Oct 2 loading from Chennai at a premium of about $12 /MT to its own price formula. This is considerably higher than the premium of $9 /MT it managed for a similar cargo for Sep 15-17 loading.
The September Naphtha crack is lower at $ 3.15 /bbl
Gasoline
Gasoline cracks have managed to strengthen on the back of tighter supplies as cargoes from Singapore are being shipped to Mexico and Iran to meet demand.
The 92 RON crack for September is valued higher at $ 14.20 /bbl.
Distillates
Distillate cracks have moved lower even as the buying spree by Unipec and Winson Oil continued. In the Asian Platts trading window, Winson Oil bought 900,000 bbls, while Unipec bought 850,000 bbls.
The September gasoil crack is lower at $ 15.45 /bbl. The regrade is unchanged at -$1.00 /bbl.
Fuel Oil
Fuel Oil cracks have weakened further in the face of lackluster demand and high inventories across key trading hubs. Only 5 cargoes totaling 100,000 MT were traded in the Platts window yesterday, which were the fewest in number and volume since the start of the month.
The 180 cst crack is valued lower at -$1.55 / bbl for September. The visco is valued at $ 0.70 /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