Asia’s gasoil markets softened as weakness in the swaps and futures market continued for a second straight session, with cash premiums hitting a five-month low, against a backdrop of increasing spot activity for December cargoes.
December spot activity picked up slightly in line with earlier market expectation with a major South Korean refiner kickstarting sales, with loading volumes similar with November.
Spot cash premiums slipped further to slightly below 45 cents a barrel, as the market’s swap price structure continued to flatten. Ready sellers in the market for both November and December cargoes also weighed on premiums.
Estimates for November-loading diesel exports from China remained at between 500,000 metric tons and 700,000 tons, several trade sources said.
Refining margins for 10ppm sulphur gasoil fell 5% from the previous session to slightly below $23.50 a barrel.
Jet fuel refining margins fell at a slower pace and regrade JETREG10SGMc1 discount narrowed to 10 cents a barrel to a six-month high, given the weakness in gasoil swaps.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
– No deals for both fuels.
INVENTORIES
– U.S. crude stocks rose by about 11.9 million barrels in the week ended Nov. 3, according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday. Gasoline inventories fell by about 360,000 barrels, while distillate inventories rose by about 980,000 barrels, the sources said on condition of anonymity.
– Middle distillates stockpiles in Fujairah Oil Industry Zone hit a three-week low of 1.786 million barrels for the week ended Nov. 6, according to industry information service S&P Global Commodity Insights.
REFINERY NEWS REF/OUT
– Marathon Petroleum MPC.N began restarting a rebuilt reformer on Monday at its 593,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas, people familiar with plant operations said on Tuesday.
NEWS
– Shell PLC SHEL.L is looking to scale up sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production in the United States, a country it sees as attractive for development of such low-emission forms of energy, Shell USA president Gretchen Watkins said on Tuesday.
– Nigeria’s state oil firm NNPC Ltd said on Tuesday it had launched a new grade of crude called Nembe, as Africa’s largest oil producer aims to ramp up crude production.
– This year is “virtually certain” to be the warmest in 125,000 years, European Union scientists said on Wednesday, after data showed last month was the world’s hottest October in that period.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Trixie Yap; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)