Crude Oil
Crude prices rose strongly amid little news. Brent gained 68 cents to settle at $ 48.42 / bbl. while WTI gained 59 cents to settle at $ 46.08 / bbl.
Yesterday’s rise is prices in being ascribed to the report that China’s imports of oil in H1 2017 was 14% higher than the same time last year. We are of the opinion that this could be a delayed response to the ‘bullish’ DOE data of the previous day. the foreseeable future.
Naphtha
The physical crack for naphtha continued to weaken as there seems to be enough supplies to fulfill the fresh demand and more.
The July crack has fallen to -$0.80 /bbl. The August crack is at -$0.60 /bbl
Gasoline
Gasoline stocks dipped by 26 KT in the ARA region to 797 KT sort of mirroring a drop in the US. However, in Singapore, light distillate stocks (which are predominantly gasoline) rose by a huge 1.89 million barrels to 12.65 million barrels. Most of this rise in stocks could be attributed to a drop in export of stocks to Indonesia (500 KB) and an increase in supplies from China (600 KB)
Gasoline cracks are unchanged in the prompt and marginally weaker for August. The July crack has dropped to $ 10.80 /bbl. while August has fallen to single digits at $ 9.95 /bbl.
Distillates
Gasoil cash premia eased out as inventories increased by 113 KB in Singapore. In the meanwhile, ADNOC has deferred its long term gasoil export tenders and it evaluates the possibility it may need the gasoil in light of the Qatari embargo.
The July gasoil crack is marginally higher at $ 12.80 /bbl and August around $ 12.10 /bbl.
The July regrade is valued at -$1.00 /bbl for July. August is at -$0.50 / bbl.
Fuel Oil
Buying interest in the fuel oil window raised the physical crack to one week high. This came even as stocks rose marginally in Singapore by 450 KB and bunker demand in June dropped significantly.
The 180 cSt July crack though is marginally firmer at -$0.30 / bbl. The visco spread is at $0.90 /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.