Asia’s middle distillates markets continued to see a slew of window trades for mid-December, with spot refiner sales still underway, though spot premiums extended its downtrend.
Expectations of more demand for December resurfaced after talks of one regional refinery having troubles were in the market, though further details could not be confirmed.
On the sales front, refiners continued their December sales as South Korean oil major SK Energy offered more spot cargoes in line with earlier expectations.
On gasoil’s window, major trading house Vitol continued its spot mid-December purchases, with total purchases adding up to 450,000 barrels for this week so far.
China refiners were still seeking to clear more November-loading jet fuel stocks ahead of the tax rebate declines starting Dec. 1, two trade sources said.
At least one cargo to load from Zhoushan in the next week is under negotiation, one of the sources added.
For 10ppm sulphur gasoil, refining margins reclined slightly from the previous session’s high, but remained near four-month high levels of around $16.50 a barrel.
Cash premiums slipped 10 cents to 50 cents a barrel, as lower-priced offers were prevalent for most December-loading shipments.
Regrade JETREG10SGMc1 was little changed at a premium of 69 cents a barrel.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
– Two gasoil deals, no jet fuel deal.
INVENTORIES
– U.S. crude oil stocks rose while fuel inventories fell last week, market sources said, citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday.
– Middle distillates inventories held at Fujairah Oil Industry Zone were little changed at 1.919 million barrels in the week ended Nov. 18, according to industry information service S&P Global Commodity Insights.
REFINERY NEWS
– BP BP.L has delayed the restart of a crude distillation unit and a coker at its 435,000 barrel-per-day Whiting, Indiana, refinery from maintenance, boosting fuel prices in the Chicago market, industry sources said on Tuesday.
NEWS
– Asia’s imports of jet fuel from India are set to hit multi-year highs in November ahead of peak winter demand after refinery outages and lower exports from China crimped supplies, according to industry sources and shiptracking data.
– Equinor EQNR.OL has restored full output capacity at its Johan Sverdrup oilfield in the North Sea following an outage that drove up oil prices, and is now producing steadily at normal levels, a company spokesperson said on Wednesday.
– Iraq’s fuel oil exports are on track to hit all-time highs this year after the country ramped up shipments in October, as domestic demand eased while output rose, according to industry sources and ship-tracking data.
– Oil was broadly stable for a second day on Wednesday as concerns about escalating hostilities in the Ukraine war potentially disrupting oil supply from Russia and signs of growing Chinese crude imports offset data showing U.S. crude stocks rising.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Trixie Yap; Editing by Maju Samuel)