Crude Oil
Crude finished the day marginally higher on reports of all round willingness to extend production cuts. Brent settled 30 cents firmer at $52.51 per barrel and WTI ended 28 cents higher at $49.35 a barrel.
Naphtha
Naphtha continued to be soft in the absence of any visible strong buying.
The June Japan Naphtha- Dubai crack further softened to -$1.5 /bbl.
Gasoline
Gasoline cracks are are holding steady for now. June is valued $ 10.3 /bbl inspite of Singapore reporting a build of 1 million barrels in light distillate stocks.
We can see from the above graph that stocks are about comfortable and not alarmingly high. Hence the impact should not necessary have been bearish.
The US Automobile Association reports that they expect that the number of cars driving during the Memorial Day holiday will hit a 12 year high. Having said that, we should bear in mind that demand has actually gone down 3% year on year this year.
Distillates
India and Vietnam are continued to be seen buying Gasoil cargos. Petrolimex has been reported to have been lifting 3 cargos. Indian Oil Corporation from India has also been has been seen buying multiple cargos. Not withstanding the above, distillate stocks built by 1.6 million barrels.
We can see that distillate stocks are at record highs for this time of the year. High freight rates prevent the shipping of these stocks to the US which can theoretically use them.
The prompt demand however seems to have pushed the June Gasoil crack up to $10.1 /bbl. The regrade continues to drop and is valued at 35 cents/bbl today.
Fuel Oil
The physical markets yesterday were marked by an absence of sellers even as stocks rose by 1.6 million barrels yesterday. The June 180cst-Dubai crack was unchanged at -$ 3.05 / bbl and the Visco spread is at $1.10/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.