Oil prices had their worst week in months even after crude prices edged higher Friday.
Brent Crude did a final pre-weekend trade of $73.14 after rising 12 cents, or 0.2%, to finish Friday at $73.59 per barrel. For the week, Brent lost $1.96, or 2.6%, for its sharpest weekly decline since the week to May 14.
WTI crude futures did a final pre-weekend trade of $71.46 after settling Friday’s session up 16 cents, or 0.2%, at $71.81 per barrel. For the week though, WTI lost $2.75, or 3.7%. That was the largest weekly loss for U.S. crude since the week ended March 14.
Oil prices fell more than 1% on Monday, hit by an agreement over the weekend within the OPEC+ group of producers to boost output.
China’s independent refiners are poised to slash their run rates as rising outright oil prices continue to threaten the fuel producers’ domestic refining and sales margins, setting the stage for a sharp decline in the sector’s crude imports in September, market and industry sources said.
India’s crude oil imports in June fell to their lowest in nine months, as refiners curtailed purchases amid higher fuel inventories due to low consumption and renewed coronavirus lockdowns in the previous two months.
The number of active rigs in the US rose by 2 to 380 according to data reported by Baker Hughes.
At a global level, the death toll from the COVID-19 virus rose to 4.11 Million (+6,878 DoD) yesterday. The total number of active cases rose by 100,000 DoD to 12.94 million. (Click here for details).
Asia’s naphtha crack was assessed at $134.33 per tonne, from $133.38 per tonne in the previous session.
The August crack is higher at $3.70 / bbl
Asia’s gasoline crack was assessed at $8.71 per barrel, from $8.55 per barrel in the previous session.
Singapore light distillates stocks rose 321,000 barrels to a three-month high of 14.573 million barrels in the week of July 14, according to data released on Thursday by Enterprise Singapore.
The August crack is lower at $10.70 / bbl
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Gasoline stocks by region.
Cash differentials for 10 ppm gasoil were a cent higher at a discount of 5 cents per barrel on Friday.
Middle-distillate inventories in the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone rose 1.9% to 3.7 million barrels in the week ended July 12, data via S&P Global Platts showed. The weekly stocks in Fujairah have averaged 3.9 million barrels this year, compared with 4.2 million barrels in 2020, Reuters calculations showed.
ARA Gasoil stocks rose 0.8% to 2.3 million tonnes in the week ended July 15, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.
Cash differentials for jet fuel dropped by a cent to a discount of 40 cents per barrel to Singapore quotes.
The August crack for 500 ppm Gasoil is unchanged at $6.25 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at $ 8.25 /bbl. The regrade is at -$ 0.30 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Distillate stocks by region.
Asia’s front-month 0.5% very low-sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) crack climbed to a near two-week high of $12.79 a barrel above Dubai crude, Refinitiv data in Eikon showed, on a tightening supply outlook and lower crude oil prices.
The front-month crack discount narrowed to $7.50 a tonne below Dubai crude, up from a near two-month low of minus $8.33 a tonne on Wednesday, Refinitiv data on Eikon showed.
Since the start of June, the front-month 380-cst HSFO crack averaged at a $6.94 per barrel discount to Dubai crude compared to an average discount of $3.68 a barrel over the same period last year and minus $1.17 a barrel in 2019.
ARA Fuel Oil stocks fell by 29,000 tonnes to 1.21 million tonnes in the week ended July 15, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.
The August crack for 180 cst FO is higher at -$5.75 /bbl with the visco spread at $1.25 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Fuel Oil stocks by region.
We will lay on one tranche more of August Jap-Nap Dubai at current levels of $3.70/bbl. We will also hedge 4Q Jap-Nap Dubai at current levels of 2.90 / bbl.
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.