Asia’s middle distillates markets were little changed from the previous trading session, but weakness persisted for third straight week as broader macroeconomics weighed despite limited supply-demand fluctuations.
Beijing issued a third batch of product export quotas, which were almost in line with earlier expectations, keeping the year on year volumes little changed.
However these volumes were slightly more than earlier expectations and this weighed on overall paper discussion levels – though some analysts say it could be a boon for local refining runs.
Offers emerged from at least one northeast Asia refiner for more October spot cargoes, in line with earlier expectations, though the paper structure shape still remained shaky in the afternoon trading session.
More selling interest is likely to come from China refiners in the next week for October jet fuel shipments, one source said.
Refining margins closed the trading session at 60 cents lower week on week at around $11.6 a barrel, after declining for the third straight session this trading week.
Spot market discounts were little changed from the previous session at 46 cents a barrel, but these levels were still an improvement of more than 10 cents from a week earlier.
In jet fuel markets, regrade extended losses for a third straight session and discounts widened to around 25 cents a barrel.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
– No deals for both fuels
INVENTORIES
– Independently held refined oil products stocks in storage in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub rose by 2.1% in the week to Thursday, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.
REFINERY OUTAGES
– A catalytic cracker and two distillation units at Venezuela’s Amuay refinery, the country’s largest, have resumed operations following a power interruption earlier this month, five sources told Reuters this week.
NEWS
– China has released new oil export quotas for the rest of 2024, comprising 8 million metric tons of clean refined fuel and 1 million tons of marine fuel, two Chinese commodities consultancies and several trade sources said on Friday.
– China’s fuel oil imports rebounded to three-month highs in August, while export volume for bunkering dropped to five-month lows, customs data showed on Friday.
– Oil refiners in Asia, Europe and the United States are facing a drop in profitability to multi-year lows, marking a downturn for an industry that had enjoyed surging returns post-pandemic and underlining the extent of the current slowdown in global demand.
– China’s crude oil imports from Malaysia surged 31% in August from a year earlier, making it the country’s second-largest supplier after Russia, customs data showed, bucking a broader trend of slowing Chinese imports.
– Indian refiners are jointly negotiating to purchase Russian oil for next year, a government source said on Thursday, with suppliers mostly using Russian insurance for crude priced above a $60 per barrel cap.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Trixie Yap, Editing by Louise Heavens)