Asia’s middle distillates markets saw slightly more paper trading activity on window, though December physical discussions were slightly muted and spot refiner sales were at premium levels.
Several December spot cargoes have been sold at premiums so far, Reuters records showed, with traders saying this is also in part related to the backwardated price structure in the market currently.
There is still some short-term demand strength in northeast Asia supporting the market too, one source added.
Cash differentials GO10-SIN-DIF however declined as offers on the trading window fell further, reflecting the tighter backwardation in the paper markets, though activity was mostly thin.
On the demand front, firm expectations of better demand in some regional destinations such as Japan could still be supportive in the near term and that could be propping up regrade in the near term, one trade source said, though temperatures were still higher than usual.
Regrade JETREG10SGMc1 declined further to a premium of 65 cents a barrel.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS O/AS
– No deals for both fuels.
INVENTORIES
– Middle distillate stocks held at Fujairah Oil Industry Zone fell to around a two-month low of 1.767 million barrels for the week ended Nov. 11, according to industry information service S&P Global Commodity Insights.
– U.S. crude oil and product stockpiles were expected to have risen last week, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Tuesday.
REFINERY NEWS REF/OUT
– Toa Oil, a unit of Idemitsu Kosan 5019.T, restarted a 70,000-barrels-per-day (bpd) crude distillation units (CDU) at the Keihin refinery near Tokyo on Oct. 24, following a shutdown on Sept. 10 due to a system glitch, an Idemitsu spokesperson said.
– Japan’s biggest refiner, Eneos Corp, shut the 95,200-barrel-per-day No.2 crude distillation unit (CDU) at its Mizushima-B refinery in western Japan in October due to a system trouble, the company said on Tuesday.
NEWS
– Oil prices inched higher on Wednesday, underpinned by signs of near-term supply tightness but held near their lowest in two weeks, a day after OPEC downgraded its forecast for global oil demand growth in 2024 and 2025.
– Iran has made plans to sustain its oil production and export and is ready for possible oil restrictions from the U.S., Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said on Wednesday, according to the oil ministry’s news website Shana.
– At least eight people were injured in a fire at the Indian Oil Corp’s IOC.NS 8-million-metric-tons-per-annum (MTPA) refinery in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, late Tuesday, the country’s top refiner said on Wednesday.
– The Dangote Oil Refinery has the capacity to produce winter diesel for the European market, an executive said on Tuesday, a further indication of its potential to disrupt the global refining market.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Trixie Yap; Editing by Vijay Kishore)