Asia’s middle distillates markets extended losses from past few sessions of weakness, though October sales activity slowed slightly and some refiners were still mulling their spot discussions.

Regional demand remains curtailed, as we can see that discounts for October are seemingly still at similar levels for September, one northeast Asia refinery source said.

More October sales are still likely to emerge, but some refiners are probably holding back their offers since the market structure is in contango, which means it could be better to store prompt supplies and sell them later given the higher forward prices, the source added.

Refining margins for the transport and industrial fuel closed the trading session at around $14 a barrel.

Meanwhile, refining margins at a complex Singapore facility dipped to nearly a two-year low of minus 61 cents a barrel.

Spot cash discounts inched down by 1 cent from the previous trading session and hovered at multi-year lows, given the wider September/October contango price structure.

Lower-priced offers however did take a breather and overall discussions slowed slightly.

On the jet fuel front, sales activity went back to being slightly muted as October offers have yet to emerge from key refiners, but window trades stayed upbeat. Deals continued to be done for a fourth consecutive session.

Regrade narrowed slightly to a discount of 28 cents a barrel, tracking the slight rebound in gasoil Oct paper swaps.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

– One jet fuel deal, no gasoil deal

INVENTORIES

– U.S. crude oil and fuel inventories fell last week, according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Wednesday.

– Singapore’s middle distillates stockpiles climbed back above 11 million barrels, despite a rise in net exports for diesel/gasoil and jet fuel/kerosene, official data showed on Thursday.

NEWS

– The 600,000-barrel oil tanker Front Jaguar was loading at Libya’s Brega port on Wednesday, engineers told Reuters and Kpler data showed, despite a blockade that has halted other exports.

– A recent fire at a major Moscow refinery will not lead to fuel shortages in the region as production from other refineries would compensate for the temporary disruption, Interfax news agency reported on Thursday citing Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev.

– OPEC+ is discussing delaying an oil output increase scheduled to start in October after oil prices hit their lowest in nine months, four sources from the producer group told Reuters on Wednesday.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Trixie Yap; Editing by Shreya Biswas)