Asia’s 10 ppm sulphur gasoil spot premiums GO10-SIN-DIF rebounded to above $2 a barrel on Wednesday as prompt buyers came back into the market, against a backdrop of limited selling interest and few lower-priced sellers.
Outlooks, however remained mixed, with September supplies possibly still sufficient as evidenced from more sale tenders from northeast Asian refiners.
Refining margins for 10 ppm sulphur gasoil cargoes rebounded by more than $1 to almost $32.50 a barrel, mostly due to crude futures falling at a quicker pace than gasoil futures and swaps. This came against a backdrop of stronger northwest Europe cracks as well.
Jet fuel refining margins were supported by the opened arbitrage for Asian sellers to the U.S. West Coast, with the price differential between the two regions remaining above $15 a barrel. Cash premiums for the aviation fuel firmed as well above $2 a barrel.
Regrade narrowed as a result to $1.88 a barrel.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS O/AS
– One gasoil deal, no jet fuel deal.
INVENTORIES
– Crude stocks dropped by about 2.4 million barrels in the week ended Aug. 18, according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Gasoline inventories rose by about 1.9 million barrels, while distillate inventories fell by about 150,000 barrels. API/S
– Middle distillates stockpiles held at Fujairah Oil Industry Zone fell to a six-month low of 1.946 million barrels in the week ended Aug. 21, according to industry information service S&P Global Commodity Insights.
REFINERY OUTAGES REF/OUT
– Vietnam’s largest oil refinery has shut down some of its units, beginning a 55-day total shutdown for major maintenance, a company source said on Wednesday.
– Production at Citgo Petroleum’s 167,500-barrel-per-day (bpd) Corpus Christi, Texas, refinery was cut back on Tuesday following a power outage caused by Tropical Storm Harold, the company said in a statement.
NEWS
– Two tankers, the Singapore-flagged BW Lesmes and Cayman Islands-flagged Burri, briefly collided in Egypt’s Suez Canal, ship tracking company MarineTraffic said early on Wednesday, citing eyewitnesses.
– Oil prices slid more than 1% on Wednesday as gloomy global manufacturing data grabbed attention ahead of an annual meeting of central bankers at Jackson Hole in the United States, with interest rates high on the agenda.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Trixie Yap; Editing by Varun H K)