Asia’s middle distillates market liquidity turned more fast-paced on Thursday, as evidenced from the several spot deals on window and the emergence of more refiner offers for November cargoes.
More discussions for northeast Asia-origin barrels were underway in the afternoon trading session, as some spot cargoes for second-half November were offered by refiners.
The market is not yet at premiums given that November outlooks remain cloudy depending on how long some of the unexpected outages will take, though some buyers have indicated they can pay for prompt cargoes at flat levels, one trade source said.
Talks of China’s oil majors trying to secure more export opportunities via increased quota volumes also emerged, but further details could not be confirmed
Refining margins were little changed from the previous session, holding its fort at around $12.44 a barrel.
Cash differentials firmed back to up almost 50 cents a barrel with buying interest resuming after previous session’s illiquidity.
Strength in jet fuel paper discussion levels compared with gasoil was even more evident in the afternoon trading session, as some traders factored in the possibly better heating demand that can emerge soon.
Jet fuel spot discussions on window flipped to a premium of 17 cents a barrel, a two-month high, reflecting the paper market structure and firmer demand.
Regrade gained further for the sixth session to a premium of 55 cents a barrel.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
– One gasoil deal, one jet fuel deal.
INVENTORIES
– U.S. crude oil and fuel stocks fell last week, market sources said, citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Wednesday. API/S
– Singapore turned a net importer of jet fuel/kerosene despite middle distillates inventories declining for the second straight week to slightly below 9.5 million barrels, official data showed on Thursday.
REFINERY NEWS
– Russia’s offline primary oil refining capacity is seen declining by around 15% in the later half of October from the first 15 days of the month, Reuters calculations based on data from industry sources showed on Wednesday.
NEWS
– Russian forces attacked energy infrastructure in the southern region of Mykolaiv as they launched 56 drones and one missile in an overnight assault on Ukraine.
– Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports in August fell to their lowest level in a year, data from the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI) showed on Thursday.
– OQEP, the exploration and production business of Oman’s state oil group, has raised $2.03 billion from its initial public offering on the local stock exchange, it said on Thursday, in the Gulf country’s biggest ever listing.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Trixie Yap; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)