Crude prices rebounded from six-week lows on Thursday as market participants bought back contracts oversold in the previous session.
Brent crude futures finished the session up 96 cents, or 1.2%, at $81.24 per barrel. WTI crude futures settled up 65 cents, or 0.8%, at $79.01 per barrel.
Reports about the Biden administration’s lobby for a coordinated global action on oil reserve sales coincided on Wednesday with data from the Energy Information Administration showing a release of 3.2 million barrels from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The White House confirmed on Thursday it had reached out to China and a few other countries over the matter.
China’s National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration confirmed on Wednesday that it was working on a release of crude from its reserves, though it did not comment on the U.S. initiative.
At a global level, the death toll from the COVID-19 virus rose to 5.15 Million (+7,628 DoD) yesterday. The total number of active cases rose by 190,000 DoD to 19.65 million. Yesterday’s figure was wrongly reported by the website. (Click here for details).
Asia’s naphtha crack fell to a four-week low of $152.52 a tonne from $160.58 on Wednesday.
The December crack is lower at $ 3.75 /bbl.
Asia’s gasoline crack fell to a more than five-week low of $9.71 a barrel on Thursday, down from $11.11 a barrel in the previous session.
Singapore’s light distillate inventories jumped 14% to a three-week high of 11.21 million barrels in the week to Nov. 17, Enterprise Singapore data showed.
The December crack is lower at $10.30 / bbl
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Gasoline stocks by region.
Cash differentials for gasoil with 10 ppm sulphur content dropped to a premium of 49 cents per barrel to Singapore quotes on Thursday, compared with 60 cents per barrel a day earlier.
Asian refining margins for 10 ppm gasoil dipped on Thursday as traders remain worried that China’s recent COVID-19 outbreak would partly dampen its domestic demand, prompting higher exports into the region. Refining margins, also known as cracks, for 10 ppm gasoil slipped 19 cents to $12.20 per barrel over Dubai crude during Asian trading hours, despite weaker prices for raw material crude.
Steady demand growth in India, however, is expected to provide a cushion to Asian gasoil market fundamentals in the coming months, market watchers said.
Singapore’s middle distillate inventories rose 0.3% to a two-week high of 9.2 million barrels in the week to Nov. 17, according to Enterprise Singapore data. This week’s stocks were about 43% lower than a year earlier.
The December crack for 500 ppm Gasoil is unchanged at $11.10 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at $ 12.40 /bbl. The regrade is at -$ 0.85 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Distillate stocks by region.
Asia’s high-low (HiLo) sulphur price spread climbed on Thursday, rebounding from a near one-month low in the previous session, lifted by bullish low-sulphur residual fuel market fundamentals.
The front-month HiLo sulphur price spread, the difference between front-month 0.5% very low-sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) and 380-cst high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) swaps, climbed to $140.75 a tonne on Thursday, up by $5.25 from the previous session, Refinitiv data showed.
Onshore fuel oil stocks fell by 393,000 barrels, or about 62,000 tonnes, to a six-week low of 21.36 million barrels, or 3.36 million tonnes, Enterprise Singapore data showed. The residual fuel stocks were 3% lower from year-ago levels and below the 2021 weekly average of 22.7 million barrels.
The December crack for 180 cst FO is lower at -$6.55 /bbl with the visco spread at $1.80 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Fuel Oil stocks by region.
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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.