Crude OilCovid StatsNaphthaGasolineDisitllatesFuel OilHedge Strategy

Oil is struggling to regain its strong upside of the past four months as new Covid-19 lockdowns in Europe weighed on crude prices trying to recover from the worst week since the end of October.

Brent crude settled up a mere 9 cents, or 0.1%, at $64.53. WTI seesawed between red and green territory all day before settling up just 15 cents, or 0.2%, at $61.55 per barrel.

OPEC+ compliance with oil production cuts in Feb’21 rose to 113%, two OPEC+ sources from the producer group told Reuters on Monday. The figure compares with a Jan’21 compliance figure of 103%.

NNPC has cut the OSP’s for 32 of its 34 export crude grades loading in Apr’21, having left them unchanged from Mar’21 cargoes, with the flagship Bonny Light and Qua Iboe grades were lowered by 30c/bbl and 27c/bbl respectively.

India’s crude oil imports fell by the most in four months in Feb’21, down 18.3% YoY to 15.24 MMT, PPAC data showed, as demand slowed due to rising fuel prices and as the country faces a resurgence in COVID-19 cases and potentially fresh restrictions.

At a global level, the death toll from the COVID-19 virus rose to 2,734,998 (+7,038 DoD) yesterday. The total number of active cases fell by around 60,000 DoD to 21.29 million. (Click here for details)

Asia’s naphtha crack dipped to $101.45 per tonne on Monday, down from $103.33 a tonne on Friday.

The April crack is lower at $0.40 /bbl

Asia’s gasoline crack ose to $5.83 per barrel, compared with $5.77 per barrel on Friday. The crack had climbed to as high as $6.37 a barrel last week.

Gasoline refining margins, which have climbed nearly 64% so far this year, are expected to strengthen further as upcoming spring refinery turnarounds would curb supplies.

India’s petrol exports dipped 1.1% to about 880,000 tonnes in February from 890,000 tonnes in January, government data showed. February’s exports were 14.6% lower year-on-year, the data showed.

The April crack is higher at $7.05 /bbl.

Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Gasoline stocks by region.

Asia’s cash discounts for 10 ppm gasoil narrowed on Monday, thanks to an uptick in buying interests for physical cargoes, while the front-month spread for the industrial fuel slimmed its contango structure.

Cash differentials for 10 ppm gasoil were at 18 cents per barrel to Singapore quotes, compared with a 24-cent discount on Friday.

The April/May time spread for 10 ppm gasoil in Singapore traded at minus 15 cents per barrel on Monday, as against minus 18 cents a barrel at the end of last week.

India exported 2.11 million tonnes of diesel in February, compared with 2.32 million tonnes in January, and 2.39 million tonnes in February last year, government data showed.

Cash differentials for jet kero were unchanged at a discount of 42 cents per barrel to Singapore quotes on Friday.

Global scheduled airline capacity has increased 1.4% WoW for the week starting 22 Mar’21, to 59.8 million seats, driven by Western Europe gains, although it is still only 56.1% of Jan’20 levels, according to OAG.

The April crack for 500 ppm Gasoil is lower at $4.75 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at $ 5.55 / bbl. The regrade is at -$ 1.75 /bbl. 

Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Distillate stocks by region.

Asia’s 0.5% very low-sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) was largely steady on Monday, as sentiment was expected to be muted amid a balanced near-term supply and demand outlook.

The VLSFO market suffered steady losses in recent weeks as rising arbitrage supplies dampened sentiment and eased concerns of shrinking inventories in and around the Singapore hub.

The April crack for 180 cst FO is lower at  -$3.70 /bbl with the visco spread at $0.85 /bbl.

Click Here for a graphical depiction of Fuel Oil stocks by region.

No fresh action 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.

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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.

Disclaimer : All the views are the author’s personal views. These do not constitute an advice to buy or sell any commodity

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