Crude Oil
Oil prices ticked up on Thursday, boosted by the possibility of an economic stimulus package in the United States.
Brent crude futures rose 73 cents to settle at $42.46 a barrel. WTI crude futures rose 61 cents to $40.64 per barrel.
Japan’s core consumer prices slipped for the second consecutive month in Sep’20, down 0.3% YoY, a sign that a coronavirus-induced demand downturn is piling deflationary pressure on the world’s third-largest economy already blighted by recession.
covid 19
At a global level, the death toll from the COVID-19 virus rose to 1,142,167 (+6,855 DoD) yesterday. The total number of active cases rose by around 220,000 DoD to 9.64 million. (Click here for details).
Naphtha
Asia’s naphtha inter-month spread hit a 6-month low as ample supplies weighed. Front-month open-specification naphtha for first-half December fell to $4.25 a tonne below that of first-half January, reflecting heavy supplies for prompt delivery.
Prices of heavy naphtha were already in discount levels much earlier.
The November crack is lower at $ 1.55 /bbl
Gasoline
Singapore light distillates inventories eased 3.9% or 540 KB to reach near an 8-month low of about 13.3 million barrels in the week to Wednesday, data from Enterprise Singapore showed. This was however 17% higher than a year ago when the volume was at 11 million barrels.
The November crack is higher at $ 2.95 /bbl
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Gasoline stocks by region.
Distillates
Asia’s benchmark 10ppm diesel crack edged up 4 cents to a three-session high of $3.04 a barrel on Thursday, supported by drawdowns on stockpiles.
Singapore middle distillates stocks edged down 2.1% or 312 KB to reach an 8-week low of 14.8 million barrels in the week to Wednesday, data from Enterprise Singapore showed. This was however at least 35% higher than a year ago when the volume was at 10.8 million barrels.
The November crack for 500 ppm Gasoil is lower at $2.05 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at $ 2.85 / bbl. The regrade is at -$ 0.90 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Distillate stocks by region.
Fuel Oil
Asia’s 0.5% VLSF) slipped on Thursday, sinking to a near one-month low of $8.32 a barrel above Dubai crude.
Singapore’s residual fuel oil inventories slipped by 1.4% to a two-week low in the week ended Oct. 21 amid limited net import volumes and a jump in unusual exports to Saudi Arabia. Onshore fuel oil stocks fell by 335 KB to 24.317 million barrels according to the Enterprise Singapore (ESG) data. Residual fuel stocks were up 17% from last year.
The November crack for 180 cst FO is higher at $0.70 /bbl with the visco spread at $1.25 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Fuel Oil stocks by region.
Hedge Recommendations
We will add one tranche of Nov 180 cst – Dub at current levels of $ 0.70 / 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.