Asia’s 10 ppm sulphur gasoil spot premiums for July and early August parcels firmed to 87 cents a barrel as there were few lower-priced offers, though trading activity was muted.

August sellers have not yet emerged, with several northeast Asian refiners yet to confirm their contractual cargo obligations.

Refining margins rebounded to more than $17 a barrel, against a backdrop of weaker crude futures and overall prompt market shortcovering for July in the swaps market and ICE futures market.

On the jet fuel front, the market was quiet on uncertain Asian fundamentals for August, though seller margins were still positive for Asian cargoes to the West with Europe jet fuel prices trading higher than diesel, two market players said.

Regrade was almost steady at a discount of $1.35 a barrel, with a handful of participants expecting this spread to trade in this range in the short run, given weak Asian demand for jet fuel compared with the West.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS O/AS

– No gasoil or jet fuel deals.

INVENTORIES

– Middle distillates stockpiles at Fujairah Oil Zone gained by 65,000 barrels to 3.559 million barrels in the week ended July 3, according to industry information service S&P Global Commodity Insights.

NEWS

– Oil benchmark Brent fell on Wednesday, reversing some of the gains made after Saudi Arabia and Russia announced they would extend and deepen output cuts into August, as concerns over a global economic slowdown weighed on market sentiment.

– Pakistan’s Pak-Arab Refinery Limited (PARCO) has offered fuel oil for July loading in its latest tender, underlining an ongoing shift in market dynamics as the South Asian country turned to exporting instead of importing fuel oil this summer.

– China’s services activity expanded at the slowest pace in five months in June, a private-sector survey showed on Wednesday, as weakening demand weighed on post-pandemic recovery momentum.

– New joint oil output cuts agreed by Russia and Saudi Arabia earlier this week have again proven sceptics wrong about Saudi-Russian energy relations, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told a conference on Wednesday.

– Additional oil output and export cuts made by Saudi Arabia and Russia earlier this week should be enough to help balance the oil market, United Arab Emirates’ energy minister Suhail Al Mazrouei told reporters on Wednesday.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Trixie Yap,Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)