Asia Distillates-Gasoil margin logs weekly decline of over 10%

Asia’s refining margin for gasoil posted a weekly drop of more than 10%, with an uptick in Indian supplies countering the limited outflows from Chinese exporters.

The crack for 10ppm sulphur gasoil closed at premiums of $15.30 a barrel on Friday, retreating to more than two-week lows.

“Lacklustre demand from Europe has led to barrels largely trapped within Asia and struggling to find homes outside of the region,” said Charles Ong, senior research specialist at LSEG, in a trade flows report this week.

“Indian barrels shipped within Asia have risen to above-average levels,” he said, adding that this contributed to a five-weeks build of Singapore onshore middle distillate inventory.

In recent tenders, India’s MRPL offered 40,000 to 65,000 metric tons of gasoil/diesel for loading between Dec. 17 and 18, showed a notice from its website. The tender closes on Friday with same-day validity.

Meanwhile, the regrade spread closed at a premium of 70 cents a barrel on the final trading day of the month.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

– No gasoil deal, no jet fuel deal.

INVENTORIES

– U.S. distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 400,000 barrels in the week to 114.7 million barrels, versus expectations for a 100,000-barrel rise.

– ARA gasoil stocks dipped by 5% on the week to 2.26 million tons, as demand up the Rhine remained firm on the back of high water levels, based on Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

REFINERY NEWS REF/OUT

– Australia’s top fuel retailer Ampol said on Friday it had completed repairs at its fluidized catalytic cracking unit at the Lytton refinery in Queensland, and now expects total production for 2024 to be 5.2 billion liters.

– A fire at a refinery belonging to Mexican state oil producer Pemex has been extinguished, the firm and authorities said on Thursday, noting that no one had been reported injured.

NEWS

– OPEC+ is discussing postponing its oil output hike due to start in January for the first quarter of 2025, OPEC+ sources told Reuters on Thursday, and will hold further talks on this and other options ahead of its delayed policy meeting on Dec. 5.

– India’s finance ministry is evaluating the relevance of windfall tax, a federal government source said.

– Indonesia remains committed to start implementing a 40% mandatory biodiesel mix with palm oil-based fuel, or B40, on Jan. 1 next year, its chief economic minister said on Friday.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Arun Koyyur|)