Asia’s middle distillates markets turned upbeat on the trading window with a flurry of deals done, as traders awaited October spot refiner activity.
ICE gasoil futures surged as some shutdowns in Northwest Europe worried traders from a tighter front-month perspective, while Singapore front-month paper swap market structures were supported by some regional supply issues.
Some of Northeast Asia’s refiners should start offering spot October cargoes from tomorrow, several trade sources say.
Looking ahead, traders expect slightly tighter fourth-quarter supplies regionally due to scheduled refinery maintenance.
However, shaky east-west arbitrage price spreads and some uncertainty relating to China’s third batch of refined fuel export quotas could still tip the market’s supply-demand balances, they added.
Refining margins jumped to nearly $17.5 a barrel, climbing for the third straight session.
On the trading window, lower-priced offers were readily available, with jet fuel cash differentials (JET-SIN-DIF) more than 60% lower from the previous trading session at 23 cents per barrel.
The 10ppm gasoil cash differentials gained slightly to 59 cents per barrel, given a firmer market structure.
Regrade closed the session slightly wider at discounts of $1.62 a barrel.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
– Two gasoil deals, no jet fuel deals
REFINERY SHUTDOWNS
– Shell plans to begin a major shutdown for maintenance at its 404,000-barrel-per-day Pernis oil refinery in Rotterdam from mid-September, according to a statement on the refinery’s official X account.
NEWS
– European Union countries are considering a 10-year delay to the introduction of EU-wide taxes on aviation and shipping fuels as they seek to push long-delayed energy tax reforms over the line, a draft document seen by Reuters showed.
– Oil prices rose on Tuesday as concerns about supply disruptions grew amid an escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and as the market weighed whether upcoming U.S. jobs data would lead to interest rate cuts.
– Russian oil product exports from the Black Sea port of Tuapse are set to rise to 1.098 million metric tons in September, up 6.2% on a daily basis from 1.068 million metric tons scheduled for August, two traders said on Tuesday.
Source: Reuters