Asia Distillates-Gasoil spot premiums records loss as sellers emerge
Asia’s cash premiums for spot July 10 ppm sulphur gasoil cargoes GO10-SIN-DIF gave back previous day’s gains, reflecting the slightly cautious-to-bearish market expectations for second-half July.
Sellers were on the prowl finally as three major trading houses sought to offload mostly mid- to second-half July loading parcels.
Buying interest was less aggressive, as evident from the lower bid levels compared with the past two weeks.
“We remain more bearish than the forward curve and expect Singapore gasoil cracks to fall further in 3Q 2023 on the back of increased flows to the East and the growing regional surplus,” FGE analysts said in a monthly note.
Refining margins GO10SGCKMc1, on the other hand, rose to $18.40 a barrel and mostly caught up with crude gains in the past two trading sessions, tracking gains in the ICE gasoil futures day on day.
Jet fuel refining margins JETSGCKMc1 clawed back losses and rose to $16.29 a barrel, although regrade JETREG10SGMc1 continued to widen to a more-than-two-month low at a discount of $2.11 a barrel.
There were firm expectations that the regrade spread could narrow again as some traders were still betting on a demand pull from the U.S., as the price spread widened again to more than $20 a barrel between Asia and the U.S. West coast spot prices.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS O/AS
– One gasoil deal, no jet fuel deals.
INVENTORIES
– Analysts estimated that U.S. stockpiles of gasoline USOILG=ECI were down by about 300,000 barrels last week, while distillate USOILD=ECI, which include diesel and heating oil, increased by about 700,000 barrels.
NEWS
– Russia’s oil exports were uninterrupted throughout the short-lived mutiny led by the head of the mercenary Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin last weekend, according to Refinitiv Eikon shipping data and three traders.
– Malaysia’s state energy firm Petronas sees its domestic oil and gas production peaking at about 2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) by 2024, its exploration executives said on Tuesday.
– Oil prices edged higher on Tuesday, spurred by worries about political instability in Russia and possible supply disruptions, as well as U.S. demand hopes ahead of the summer driving season.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Trixie Yap; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)