Crude Oil
Oil futures tumbled more than 3 percent on Monday in their largest daily percentage drop this year after U.S. President Donald Trump called on OPEC to ease its efforts to boost crude prices, which he said were “getting too high.” Brent crude futures fell $2.36 to settle at $64.76 a barrel. U.S. crude ended $1.78 lower at $55.48 a barrel.
The comments triggered a selloff that halted momentum from Friday’s session, when both benchmarks hit more than three-month highs on expectations for tightening supply and rising hopes for a U.S.-China trade deal.
Naphtha
Asia’s naphtha crack eased to a four-session low of $41.63 a tonne on muted demand. Taiwan’s CPC has an outstanding tender issued last week to buy naphtha.
The March crack is higher at -$ 7.05 /bbl
Gasoline
Asia’s gasoline crack was near a seven-week high of 65 cents a barrel to Brent crude on Monday, supported by demand from Indonesia.
Indonesia’s Pertamina, the largest gasoline importer in Asia, had issued tenders last week seeking a total of 2.1 million barrels of 88-octane gasoline for March delivery. Pertamina had bought some of those volumes but details were not clear.
Demand from India could also be giving some support. India’s Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) was seeking a total of 65,000 tonnes of gasoline for delivery to Vizag and Mumbai between March 4 and 8 in a tender closing on Feb. 26. HPCL has an outstanding tender to buy a total of 900,000 tonnes of gasoline for April to December arrival at Ennore, Vizag and Mundra. Counterpart BPCL had earlier bought a gasoline cargo in a rare move as the refiner does not usually import gasoline.
The March crack is higher at $ 0.95 /bbl
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Gasoline stocks by region.
Distillates
Cash differentials for the benchmark gasoil grade were at a discount of 24 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes on Monday, the narrowest since Nov. 22. They were at a discount of 31 cents a barrel on Friday.
The March/April time spread, which flipped into backwardation on Friday, was at a premium of 5 cents a barrel, compared with 8 cents per barrel in the previous session.
The outlook for consumption patterns and exports this year from two major players, India and China, will impact the wider gasoil market in Asia the most. India’s diesel exports for January dropped about 19 percent to 1.84 million tonnes compared with December, and about 32 percent lower than exports in January 2018, according to government data released last Thursday.
Cash discounts for jet fuel narrowed by a cent to 30 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes on Monday.
The March crack is higher at $ 14.80 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at $15.80 /bbl. The regrade has dropped – $ 0.60 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Distillate stocks by region.
Fuel Oil
Asia’s cash premiums for mainstay 380-cst high-sulphur fuel oil dipped on Monday as the market grappled with abundant supplies and weaker buying interest, while the front-month spread narrowed its backwardated structure.
Cash premiums for 380-cst high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) were $1.17 a tonne to Singapore quotes, down from $1.48 a tonne on Friday. The 380-cst March/April time spread was trading at about $1.75 a tonne on Monday, down from about $2.25 a tonne in the previous session.
Refining margins for the more actively traded 380-cst barge crack to Brent crude fell to minus $4.87 a barrel during Asian trading hours, their weakest in about three weeks.
Meanwhile, Asia’s 180-cst fuel oil crack to Dubai crude for March plunged to minus 77 cents a barrel, against minus 38 cents on Friday.
The March180 cst crack has improved to – $ 0.40 / bbl with the visco spread at $ 0.70 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Fuel Oil stocks by region.
Hedge Recommendations
Nothing fresh to report 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 refiner.
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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.