Crude Oil
Oil had a mixed day on Monday. Brent crude futures settled at $72.04 a barrel, down 11 cents. WTI crude futures, however, rose 20 cents to settle at $63.50 a barrel.
Friday’s slide was triggered by a statement by Trump that he had called OPEC and told the cartel to lower oil prices. The slide was exacerbated by technical factors including an excessive speculative long position in U.S. crude.
However, Saudi Arabia subsequently denied that such a call had taken place leading to the market trying to push prices upwards once again.
Speculators raised their combined futures and options net long positions in New York and London by 24,078 contracts to 326,818 during the week to April 23, the highest level since early October. That was the ninth consecutive increase.
Growth in China’s factory activity unexpectedly cooled in April as export orders and employment fell again after a brief gain the previous month. The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 50.2 in April from March’s eight-month high of 50.8, countering economists’ expectations for a rise to 51.0
Naphtha
Asia’s naphtha crack fell for a fourth straight session to hit a one-week low of $53.63 a tonne on Monday as weakness in the European market countered demand in the East.
The European naphtha market has been under pressure from weak demand amid maintenance at three major petrochemical plants. Affordable alternative liquefied petroleum gas feedstock has also hurt naphtha demand in Europe.
However, spot premiums in Asia were faring better than a month ago. Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp bought about 100,000 tonnes of open-specification naphtha for June 1-10 arrival at Mailiao at premiums in the mid-single digit a tonne level to its own price formula on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis. This was the highest Asia’s top naphtha importer has paid since July last year.
The May crack is lower at – $ 5.85 /bbl
Gasoline
No Fresh news on the gasoline market.
The May crack is lower at $ 7.05 / bbl
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Gasoline stocks by region.
Distillates
Cash differentials for gasoil with 10ppm sulphur content remained unchanged at a discount of 15 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes on Monday.
Cash differentials for jet fuel were at a premium of 7 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes, compared with a discount of 10 cents per barrel on Friday.
The Asian jet fuel market would likely get some support from the upcoming refinery turnarounds in China, which should cut some of the excess supply in the market. Refining profit margins, also known as cracks, for jet fuel climbed as raw material crude oil prices eased on Monday.
The May crack for 500 ppm Gasoil is steady at $ 11.75 /bbl with the 10 ppm crack at 12.40 / bbl. The regrade is lower at $ 0.15 /bbl
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Global Distillate stocks by region.
Fuel Oil
The front-month 380-cst barge crack narrowed its discount on Monday despite falling crude prices. The May 380-cst barge crack was at $6.98 a barrel below Brent crude, up from minus $7.01 a barrel on Friday.
The front-month barge crack climbed more than $1.30 a barrel last week amid firm buying interest.
The May 180 cst crack is stronger at – $ 1.50 / bbl with the visco spread at $ 1.70 /bbl.
Click Here for a graphical depiction of Fuel Oil stocks by region.
Hedge Recommendations
No fresh positions to report
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.