Crude Oil

Oil prices retraced marginally on Tuesday.

Brent crude settled 19 cents lower at $43.22 per barrel, while WTI fell 56 cents to $41.04 a barrel.

Brent is still on track for a fourth monthly rise, and U.S. crude is expected to gain for a third month.

This month, however, Brent crude has fallen deeper into contango, a sign of diminishing demand. October prices were as much as 53 cents per barrel above September levels, compared with a 1 cent difference in early July.

covid 19

At a global level, the death toll from the COVID-19 virus rose to 662,481 (+5,567 DoD) yesterday, with the total number of confirmed infections at 16,883,793 (+247,581 DoD).  (Click here for details).

api data

While crude stocks dropped significantly, product stocks built contrary to expectations. Official data is awaited tomorrow.

Naphtha

Asia’s naphtha crack eased 1.67% from a near 2-1/2-week high to $83.83 a tonne on Tuesday as buying slowed.

Overall total naphtha flows into Asia for July are seen at 5.5-5.6 million tonnes so far, down sharply from June’s volumes of 6-6.1 million tonnes. 

The August crack is lower at $ 0.45 /bbl 

Gasoline

Asia’s gasoline crack tumbled 30% to reach a one-month low of 90 cents-a-barrel premium over Brent crude as rising COVID-19 infections across the world threatened demand recovery.

The world is on course to reach annual electric vehicles sales of 31.1 million by 2030, 10 million more than previously forecast, meaning that 1 in 3 new cars sold by 2030 would be EVs, according to new analysis by Deloitte.

The August crack is lower at $1.80 /bbl

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

Distillates

Cash discounts for jet fuel were at a discount of 29 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes on Tuesday, compared with a 30-cent discount on Monday.

Scheduled flights in India were down 61.7% in the week to July 27, versus the same period a year ago. This compares with a year-over-year drop of 69% for the month of June.

Japan’s scheduled flights in the week to Monday were 32% lower than the corresponding year-ago period. This compares with a decline of 45% last month.

Global flight passenger demand will recover at a slower pace than passenger volumes, with RPKs not reaching 2019’s levels before 2024. The number of flights operating globally are less than 50% of Jan’20 levels and passenger volumes are not expected to pre-pandemic levels before 2023, the IATA said 28 Jul’20.

The August crack for 500 ppm Gasoil is lower at $5.90 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at $ 7.90 / bbl. The regrade is at   -$ 3.85 /bbl.

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

Fuel Oil

Fading buying interest for cargoes of Asia’s 380-cst HSFO sent cash premiums of the fuel to a three-week low on Tuesday. Cash premiums for 380-cst HSFO cargoes slipped to 51 cents a tonne to Singapore quotes, down from the $1.68 per tonne premium in the previous session and its lowest since July 7.

Buying interest for cargoes of HSFO in the Singapore window has cooled with an average of 30 KT of deal volumes per day done so far this week, compared with a daily average of 67 KT in July thus far.

The August crack for 180 cst FO is higher at – $2.60 /bbl with the visco spread at $0.65 /bbl.

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

Hedge Recommendations

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.

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.

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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