Refining margins for light distillates eased on Thursday, while outright prices fell as more selling activity emerged.
Gasoline cracks fell day-on-day at $7.25 a barrel. The market remains weighed by a mixed outlook on supply.
Spot trade for gasoline was robust, with lower offers pressuring outright gasoline prices.
Meanwhile, naphtha cracks (NAF-SIN-CRK) slipped below $95 a barrel, after crude prices gained in the day.
In latest inventory data, Singapore light distillate stockpiles jumped to their highest in 21 months, breaching 16.4 million barrels in the week ended Feb. 5, Enterprise Singapore data showed.
NEWS
Oil prices edged up on Thursday after Saudi Arabia’s state oil company raised its March crude prices sharply, but the gains barely dented the previous day’s slide in benchmark Brent crude.
China’s retaliatory tariffs on the United States may cause U.S. oil exports to decline in 2025 for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, after growth plateaued last year.
Despite a growing trade war between Washington and Beijing, China’s ethane imports from the U.S. are set to surge this year as big petrochemical producers battling shrinking profits switch to the cheaper feedstock flowing from the U.S. shale gas boom.
SK Innovation Co Ltd, owner of South Korea’s top refiner SK Energy, said it expects refining margins to remain flat in 2025 due to rising jet fuel demand, despite production increases expected in countries such as the U.S. and Canada.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
Two octane-92 gasoline trades, three octane-97 gasoline trades and two naphtha trades.
Source: Reuters