Crude Oil

Oil prices ended the day virtually unchanged after reacting violently to President Trump’s tweet calling for increase in supply. Brent crude oil futures  settled a cent lower at $67.82 a barrel. WTI futures lost 11 cents to settle at $59.30 a barrel.

The bullish sentiment in the market can be seen in the reactions to the events of the day. Futures hit a session low immediately following Trump’s comments, but subsequently rallied above pre-tweet levels. WTI fell to a low of $58.20 in the wake of Trump’s tweet, where he said it was “very important that OPEC (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) increase the flow of Oil” due to fragile world markets. Brent sank to $66.54 a barrel before recovering.

German inflation remained below the European Central Bank’s target level for a fourth month running in March, data showed on Thursday, showing price pressures in Europe’s biggest economy are still moderate despite ultra-loose monetary policy..

Four tankers on Thursday were preparing to offload or pick up cargoes in the United States’ busiest oil port, the first signs of an easing of the bottleneck that cut 1 million barrels per day of shipments, according to vessel tracking data.

Naphtha

Asia’s naphtha inter-month premium was unchanged at $8 a tonne for the fifth straight session on Thursday.

The April crack is lower at -$ 5.55 /bbl

Gasoline

Asia’s gasoline crack was lower, reaching a 1-1/2 week low of $6.49 a barrel. But current gasoline fundamentals are better compared to late last year to early this year when supplies were ample..

Light Distillate stock levels in Singapore fell by 1.1 million barrels to 15.64 million barrels. Stocks were at the same level last year as well.

The April crack is lower at $ 6.70 /bbl

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

Distillates

Cash discounts for 10ppm gasoil  were at 20 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes, compared with a discount of 18 cents per barrel a day earlier.

Singapore’s onshore inventories of middle distillates rose by 531 kb to a two-week high in the week to March 27, data from Enterprise Singapore showed on Thursday. 

Cash differentials for jet fuel  widened discounts to 35 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes, as the physical market remained quiet with no deals. The differentials were at a discount of 31 cents a barrel in the previous session. 

The April crack for 500 ppm Gasoil is lower at $ 12.55 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at 13.50 / bbl. The regrade is lower at +$ 0.40 /bbl

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

Fuel Oil

Asia’s front-month 380-cst time spreads fell on Thursday amid firm selling pressure.

The April/May 380-cst time spread was at $1.25 per tonne on Thursday, down from $2.25 a tonne in the previous session.

Singapore fuel oil inventories slipped to a seven-week low in the week ended March 27, as net imports remained sluggish well below the average weekly volume for 2019, official data released on Thursday showed.

The April 180 cst crack is steady at $ 0.00 / bbl with the visco spread at $ 1.00 /bbl.

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

Hedge Recommendations

Nothing fresh to consider 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.

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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