Crude Oil
Oil was little changed on Friday and logged a first weekly decline since April as new U.S. coronavirus cases spiked, stoking fears of a second wave of the virus hitting fuel demand.
Brent futures rose 18 cents to settle at $38.73 a barrel. WTI crude fell 8 cents to settle at $36.26 a barrel.
Both benchmarks logged weekly declines of about 8%, their first after six weeks of gains that have lifted prices off April lows.
With about half a dozen U.S. states reporting spikes in new infections, fears that the coronavirus pandemic may be far from over has brought the rally to a halt. At the same time, U.S. crude oil inventories have risen to a record 538.1 million barrels, as cheap imports from Saudi Arabia flowed into the country.
About 123 KB/D of crude production came back online in the Gulf of Mexico from 11-12 Jun’20, according to daily updates from the US BSEE. After a peak of 636 KB/D was shut in, 120 KB/D remained down, or 6.49% of total US Gulf oil production.
China’s industrial output expanded 4.4% YoY in May’20, lagging its forecast, while retail sales fell 2.8% YoY, more than predicted, official data showed on Monday.
US energy firms cut 7 oil rigs in the week to 12 Jun’20 to total 199 (-589 YoY), the lowest since Jun’09, the 6th week in a row the US count fell to a fresh record low, according to Baker Hughes.
Money managers raised their net long US crude futures and options positions by 105 contracts to total 401,121 in the week to 9 Jun’20, the US CFTC said on Friday.
Covid 19
At a global level, the death toll from the COVID-19 virus rose to 435,181 (+3,263 DoD) yesterday, with the total number of confirmed infections at 7,984,169 (+123,645 DoD). (Click here for details).
Naphtha
Asia’s naphtha refining margin rose for a third day to reach a four-session high of $54.83 a tonne on Friday as strong demand for spot cargoes persisted.
The July crack is lower at -$1.00 / bbl.
Gasoline
Asia’s gasoline crack was at a one-week low of $1.51 a barrel premium over Brent crude. Stocks in Europe and the United States were high despite lockdown measures being gradually eased.
Gasoline stocks at ARA edged up 0.2% to hit a fresh high of 1.4 million tonnes in the week to Thursday.
The July crack is higher at $2.45 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Gasoline stocks by region.
Distillates
Cash discounts for jet fuel narrowed to 49 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes on Friday, compared with 52 cents a barrel on Thursday.
Gasoil stocks in ARA rose 3.3% to 2.85 million tonnes in the week to June 11. ARA jet fuel inventories climbed 3.7% to 902,000 tonnes. Compared with a year earlier, jet fuel stocks were 8.4% higher, while gasoil inventories were down 4.6%.
The July crack for 500 ppm Gasoil is higher at $5.60 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at $ 6.45 / bbl. The regrade is at -$ 2.85 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Distillate stocks by region.
Fuel Oil
Asia’s 180-cst HSFO prompt-month time spread fell back into negative territory. The balance of June/July 180-cst HSFO time spread fell to a contango of minus $3.25 a tonne on Friday, down from a premium of 75 cent per tonne in the previous session and minus $2 per tonne at the start of the week.
Fuel oil stocks in ARA slipped 2% from the previous week to 1.712 million tonnes in the week to June 11.
The July crack for 180 cst FO is lower at – $2.05 /bbl with the visco spread at $1.40 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Fuel Oil stocks by region.
Hedge Recommendations
No fresh action for 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.