Asia’s middle distillates markets continued the pace of upbeat trading activity, with more deals done on the window from the previous trading session and offers emerging for February cargoes.
Buying emerged for February and March cargoes from African and south Asian markets, while Taiwan’s CPC Corp offered February 10ppm sulphur gasoil cargoes.
Window activity picked up as well, with premiums done edging higher from the previous session. The paper market structure went into a deeper backwardation, further supporting cash premium increments.
Refining margins (GO10SGCKMc1) closed the trading session little changed at slightly below $16 a barrel as weakness in gasoil paper markets persisted for a second straight day.
Cash differentials (GO10-SIN-DIF) closed the trading session higher at $1 a barrel, hitting a two-month high.
Regrade (JETREG10SGMc1) gained slightly to around a discount of $1.2 a barrel.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
– One gasoil deal, one jet fuel deal
INVENTORIES
– U.S. crude oil stockpiles are expected to have fallen last week and distillate and gasoline inventories to have risen, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday.
REFINERY NEWS
– U.S. oil refiners are expected to have about 928,000 barrels per day (bpd) of capacity offline in the week ending Jan. 10, decreasing available refining capacity by 688,000 bpd, research company IIR Energy said on Monday.
NEWS
– The volume of global crude exports in 2024 declined 2%, the first fall since the COVID-19 pandemic, shipping data showed, due to weak demand growth and as refinery and pipeline changes reshuffled trade routes.
– European Union marine fuel rules, effective from Jan. 1 as part of efforts to cut emissions, will raise shipping costs, although firms with vessels that can run on alternative fuels, such as biodiesel and LNG, will benefit, two shipbrokers said.
– China’s Shandong Port Group issued a notice on Monday banning U.S. sanctioned oil vessels from its network of ports, according to three traders, potentially restricting blacklisted vessels from major energy terminals on China’s east coast.
Source: Reuters