Crude oil prices pushed higher Thursday, helped by a broader market rally which has recently outweighed concerns about the impact on energy demand from the rise in global Covid cases.
Brent Crude did a final pre-weekend trade of $74.20 after rising 31 cents, or 0.4%, to finish Friday at $73.59 per barrel. For the week, Brent gained 0.7%.
WTI crude futures did a final pre-weekend trade of $72.17 after settling Friday’s session up 16 cents, or 0.2%, at $72.07 per barrel. For the week, WTI rose 0.4%.
Oil managed to eke out a gain after starting the week with the worst tumble in 16 months that left longs in the market shaken but unscathed.
What oil bulls need to hope for in coming weeks is that the consumption of U.S. gasoline does not let up in a significant way that will allow reports of Covid cases emerging from the Delta variant to usurp the demand narrative. Having said that, unless jet fuel takes off in a big way again from the restart of global travel, the demand picture could be more implied than real. If gasoline, for any reason, doesn’t perform as expected, oil could have a real problem then.
The US oil rig count rose by 7 this week to 387, as reported by Baker Hughes.
At a global level, the death toll from the COVID-19 virus rose to 4.17 Million (+6,859 DoD) yesterday. The total number of active cases rose by 120,000 DoD to 13.88 million. (Click here for details).
Asia’s naphtha crack climbed on Friday, soaring to its strongest level in more than five years, buoyed by strong petrochemical demand.
Asia’s naphtha crack climbed to $138.53 per tonne on Friday, a level last seen in January 2016. The crack was at $136.28 per tonne on Thursday and has gained 43.4% in the last month.
The August crack is lower at $3.60 / bbl
Asia’s gasoline crack rose 30 cents to $8.77 per barrel on Friday, thanks to weaker feedstock crude prices. The gasoline crack has inched up 0.7% last week.
Gasoline stocks held independently in ARA dropped 2.4% to 871,000 tonnes in the week to July 22, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.
The August crack is higher at $10.85 / bbl
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Gasoline stocks by region.
Cash differentials for gasoil with 10 ppm sulphur content were at a premium of 5 cents per barrel on Friday, 3 cents more than on the previous day.
Gasoil stocks held independently in ARA dropped 8.6% to 2.1 million tonnes in the week ended July 22, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.
Asia’s jet fuel cash differentials firmed to their smallest discounts in more than two months on Friday, helped by steady arbitrage flows to the West and expectations that aviation demand would slowly improve in coming months.
Cash differentials for jet fuel were at a discount of 5 cents per barrel to Singapore quotes on Friday, the smallest discounts since May 19. They were at a discount of 16 cents per barrel on Thursday.
The August crack for 500 ppm Gasoil is higher at $6.55 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at $ 7.85 /bbl. The regrade is at -$ 0.95 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Distillate stocks by region.
Asia’s 0.5% very low-sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) front-month crack slipped to a more than three-week low on Friday as ample regional inventories eased concerns over tightening supplies.
The front-month VLSFO crack slipped to $11.83 a barrel above Dubai crude, down 14 cents from the previous session and its lowest since June 30, Refinitiv data in Eikon showed.
Fuel oil stocks in ARA fell by 182,000 tonnes to 1.03 million tonnes in the week ended July 22, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed. Compared with last year, the inventories at the ARA hub were 21% lower and below the five-year seasonal average of 1.18 million tonnes.
The August crack for 180 cst FO is lower at -$5.90 /bbl with the visco spread at $1.65 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Fuel Oil stocks by region.
No fresh action for today.
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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.