Asia’s middle distillates markets kicked off the week softer, reflecting mixed market sentiment and a buy-sell gap in the physical markets as aggressive buying interest eased slightly.

Physical buyers were less keen to pay higher, given the narrower February-March backwardation since the morning trading session.

Ample regional supplies from farther Asian markets also weighed further on discussions, with some Indian refiners, even on the West coast, likely to send more cargoes to Singapore given the shipping delays to the West, one regional refinery source said.

However, not all sellers were that bearish, as evidenced by the lack of lower offers in the open trading market.

Refining margins for 10ppm sulphur gasoil slipped by slightly more than 3%, tracking weakness in crude futures and slightly thinner spot trading liquidity.

Spot premiums for February shipments fell 10 cents a barrel from the previous session.

Jet fuel swaps market activity turned upbeat compared with last week’s earlier trading sessions, with regrade discussions also prevalent. Bearishness was evident from the number of ready sellers for regrade spreads.

Jet fuel refining margins dipped by around 4% from the earlier session.

Regrade widened to a discount of around $1.30 a barrel, given the weakness in jet fuel swaps.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

– No deals for both fuels.

NEWS

– Oil prices lost more ground on Monday as economic headwinds pressured the global oil demand outlook offsetting geopolitical concerns in the Middle East and an attack on a Russian fuel export terminal over the weekend.

– The Brent crude market structure and some physical markets in Europe and Africa are reflecting tighter supply partly from concerns about shipping delays due to vessels avoiding the Red Sea, according to traders, LSEG data and analysts.

– Russian energy company Novatek said on Sunday it had been forced to suspend some operations at a huge Baltic Sea fuel export terminal due to a fire started by what Ukrainian media said was a drone attack.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Trixie Yap; Editing by Tasim Zahid)