Oil Price Digest 17-Oct-16
Crude Oil
Crude Oil ended the day nearly unchanged on Friday. Traders seemed to balance the threat of an OPEC production cut against a stronger dollar and an increase in the Baker Rig Count. The Baker Rig Count has been increasing for the last 16 weeks. This would indicate that more oil is likely to be produced by the US in the near future, a factor which would put pressure on an already reluctant OPEC for increased cuts.
Naphtha
Naphtha continued to strengthen as term buyers emerged for 2017. There is a sense that Naphtha supplies from Europe and the Mediterranean may be lower for the second half of 2016 as opposed to the first half.
The crack seems to firmed up in the prompt to around -$ 1.6 / bbl (Nov)
Gasoline
The gasoline crack for November continued to firm up around $ 11 /bbl
Middle Distillates
The pressure of supplies seems to have caught up with the middle distillate markets on Friday as the Gasoil crack eased to just above $ 12 /bbl for November.
The regrade appears to be settling in negative territory currently with balance October quoting sub zero
Fuel Oil
Fuel Oil strenthened in the ARA region thus snapping the treand of incresased arbitrage levels. The 180 CST Fuel Oil Crack for November seemed unchanged at around -$ 4.31 / bbl
About this blog
This blogpost 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.