Asia’s middle distillates markets on Wednesday recorded slightly thinner spot activity on window, despite the emergence of more offers from northeast Asia for prompt cargoes.
SK Energy emerged and offered 450,000 barrels of 10ppm sulphur gasoil for sale via a tender that closes today.
So far, South Korean refiners have sold less than 10 spot December cargoes for both 10ppm and 500ppm via sale tenders, Reuters records showed, though some trade sources said more high sulphur gasoil cargoes have been done via private negotiations.
Loadings should not dip that much, compared with November, one source added.
Meanwhile, markets were still fervently awaiting more January spot sales to emerge for a clearer direction on forward fundamentals.
Prompt market bullishness for jet fuel eased further, as evidenced from the narrower backwardation between balance month and January swap discussions.
Refining margins GO10SGCKMc1 dipped slightly by 40 cents to around $15.1 a barrel.
Cash differentials GO10-SIN-DIF closed the trading session flat, with limited buyers and sellers in the open window.
Regrade JETREG10SGMc1 was little changed, holding at discounts of around 20 cents a barrel.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS O/AS
– No deals for both gasoil and jet fuel
INVENTORIES
– U.S. crude oil and fuel stocks rose last week, market sources said, citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday.
– Middle distillates stocks held at Fujairah Oil Industry Zone gained week on week to a two-month high of 2.43 million barrels in the week ended Dec. 2, according to industry information service S&P Global Commodity Insights.
REFINERY NEWS REF/OUT
– Global commodities trading house Gunvor intends to mothball the processing units at its Europoort oil refinery in Rotterdam and use the Dutch site as a terminal only, a company spokesperson told Reuters.
– Chevron Corp CVX.N completed the expansion of its Houston area refinery to 125,000 barrels per day (bpd), the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
NEWS
– U.S. net crude oil imports are forecast to fall by 20% next year to 1.9 million barrels per day, their lowest since 1971, the Energy Information Administration said on Tuesday, pointing to higher U.S. production and lower refinery demand.
– China’s top leaders and policymakers are considering allowing the yuan to weaken in 2025 as they brace for higher U.S. trade tariffs in a second Donald Trump presidency.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Trixie Yap; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)