Asia’s cash premiums for 10 ppm gasoil rose on Thursday, after middle distillate inventories in Singapore dropped to a three-week low. Cash differentials for gasoil with 10 ppm sulphur content GO10-SIN-DIF were at a premium of $4.20 a barrel to Singapore quotes, up from $3.34 per barrel a day earlier. The front-month time spread for the benchmark gasoil grade in Singapore widened its backwardation on Thursday to trade at $6.25 per barrel, compared with $4.20 a barrel on Wednesday.

Refining margins or cracks for 10 ppm gasoil jumped to a week-high of $25.68 a barrel over Dubai crude during Asian trading hours, compared with $19.61 per barrel in the previous session. The gasoil cracks have shed about 42% since hitting a record high of $44.04 a barrel last week, but they are still more than double compared with their five-year seasonal average for this time of the year, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

INVENTORIES
– Singapore’s middle distillate inventories dropped 4.7% to 7.6 million barrels in the week to March 16, according to Enterprise Singapore data. This week’s stocks were about 46% lower than a year earlier.
– Weekly Singapore middle distillate inventories have averaged about 7.8 million barrels so far this year, compared with an average of 11.8 million barrels in 2021, Reuters calculations showed.
– U.S. distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 332,000 barrels in the week to March 11, versus expectations for a 1.8 million-barrel drop, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
– No gasoil deals, no jet fuel trades
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Koustav Samanta; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)