Asia’s middle distillates markets went back to being thinly discussed in the open trading window, while cash differentials barely moved amid a buy-sell gap though some spot buying interest emerged from Vietnam.
Vietnam’s Petrolimex sought for mid-March deliveries of both 10ppm and 500ppm sulphur gasoil.
On the selling side, most northeast Asia-based refiners were done and dusted with their March spot sales, with some traders estimating that South Korea majors sold at least 12 cargoes of 10ppm sulphur gasoil and 3-4 cargoes of 500ppm sulphur gasoil.
For the 10ppm sulphur grade, sales were largely concluded at discounts of 40 cents to almost $1 per barrel.
Meanwhile, at least 300,000 metric tons of material are scheduled to arrive from end of last week to end of the month into Singapore tanks from South Korea and Taiwan, LSEG shiptracking data showed.
Despite a widening east-west arbitrage price spread since last week, India-origin barrels are still likely bound for the Singapore market with at least two cargoes heading here by the first half of next month, LSEG and Kpler data showed.
Refining margins (GO10SGCKMc1) dipped to their lowest since nearly a month earlier, of around $15 a barrel.
Cash differentials (GO10-SIN-DIF) clawed back some losses and went back up to 21 cents a barrel, as some buyers remained firm on their end-March procurement.
At the market’s close, regrade (JETREG10SGMc1) was little changed at discounts of around $1.15 a barrel.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
– No deals for both fuels
INVENTORIES
– U.S. crude oil and distillate stocks fell last week while gasoline inventories rose, market sources said, citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday.
– Middle distillates stockpiles built up further to 2.53 million barrels in the week of February 24, according to industry information service S&P Global Commodity Insights.
NEWS
– Plans due to be published by the European Commission on Wednesday could shave 45 billion euros ($47.3 billion) off the EU’s fossil fuel import bill this year, according to the EU executive’s analysis.
– Oil prices rose marginally on Wednesday, bouncing off two-month lows hit in the prior session after an industry group reported U.S. crude stockpiles fell last week.
Source: Reuters