Asia’s middle distillates markets were filled with spot August discussions on Wenesday, with activity at a quicker pace than the previous trading session, while a flurry of deals were still prevalent.

Trafigura continued with its slew of purchases for August cargoes, locking in 300,000 barrels for end-August shipment and 150,000 barrels for early September shipment.

Traders were fervently waiting for more September refiner offers to get clues on how supply levels would pan out going forward, with the market still remaining in a contango for September-October paper swaps.

Meanwhile, on the east-west arbitrage front, traders were expecting most India and Middle East cargoes to pivot west instead of east for now because of the better freight situation currently.

Refining margins for the transport and industrial fuel dipped slightly to around $16.50 a barrel.

Spot discounts climbed slightly by 2 cents a barrel to 30 cents a barrel, with Trafigura clearing most of the offers in the market.

On the jet fuel markets front, some prompt August sale discussions were also done for South Korea-origin cargoes at discounts of less than $1 a barrel and more September offers should emerge soon, two trade sources said.

Regrade was little changed at a discount of 83 cents a barrel.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

– Three 10ppm sulphur gasoil deals, no jet fuel deals.

INVENTORIES

– U.S. crude oil, gasoline and distillate inventories rose last week, according to market sources, citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday.

REFINERY NEWS

Oman’s Ministry of Energy and Minerals has sold 1 million barrels of crude to load at the end of August in a prompt tender after one of the crude units at the Sohar refinery was unexpectedly shut, several traders said on Wednesday.

NEWS

– The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Tuesday forecast tighter supply and demand balances for U.S. oil markets this year, but also lowered its outlook for prices, according to its Short-Term Energy Outlook.

– China’s daily crude oil imports in July fell to their lowest since September 2022, Reuters records of customs data show, as weak processing margins and low fuel demand curbed operations at state-run and independent refineries.

– Saudi Aramco will buy from Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical 4005.T a 22.5% stake in their petrochemical joint venture Petro Rabigh for $702 million, the companies said on Wednesday, outlining a turnaround strategy for the loss-making firm.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Trixie Yap; Editing by Sonia Cheema)