Asia Distillates-Jet cracks tumble; traders say near-term respite unlikely

Asian refining margins for jet fuel dropped on Wednesday, stooping to their weakest in over three months, as international aviation demand was muted across the region with most of long-haul flights still grounded due to prolonged coronavirus-led border restrictions.

Refining margins, also known as cracks, for jet fuel were at a discount of 75 cents a barrel to Dubai crude during Asian trading hours, the lowest since May 29. They were at minus 54 cents a day earlier.

Cracks for the aviation fuel, the worst hit among refined oil products, have remained in the negative territory for the past five straight sessions.

While some traders expect aviation demand to find support once countries start relaxing border restrictions, some others believe that might not be enough to help push up the jet fuel market in the short term.

“On the whole, individual countries are experiencing either minor improvements in capacity, or minor deteriorations, each week as airlines look for changing demand or respond to enhanced lockdown measures,” aviation data firm OAG said in a statement.

“Perhaps worryingly, some major markets which had shown signs of recovery are now showing signs of weakening with scheduled flights down further this week,” the firm said.

Scheduled flights in Indonesia were down 34.9% year on year in the week to Monday, compared with 29.1% lower in the preceding week, while India’s flights were 60.5% lower than the corresponding period last year, as against 58.8% weaker in the previous week, OAG data showed.

Cash discounts for jet fuel JET-SIN-DIF were at 50 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes on Wednesday, compared with the 43-cent discount on Tuesday.

INVENTORIES

– Middle-distillate inventories in the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone climbed 22% to 4.1 million barrels in the week ended Aug. 24, data via S&P Global Platts showed. FUJAIRAH/

– The weekly stocks in Fujairah have averaged 3.9 million barrels so far in 2020, compared with a weekly average of 2.4 million barrels in 2019, Reuters calculations showed.

– Meanwhile, U.S. distillate fuel inventories rose by 2.3 million barrels, compared with expectations for a draw of 726,000 barrels, data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed on Tuesday.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
– No gasoil deals, no jet fuel trades

    ASSESSMENTS    
 MID-DISTILLATES                                                                         
 CASH ($/T)              ASIA CLOSE       Change   % Change   Prev Close  RIC
 Spot Gas Oil 0.5%                 48.07     0.34       0.71       47.73  GO-SIN
 GO 0.5 Diff                       -2.28     0.01      -0.44       -2.29  GO-SIN-DIF
 Spot Gas Oil 0.25%                48.30     0.37       0.77       47.93  GO25-SIN
 GO 0.25 Diff                      -2.05     0.04      -1.91       -2.09  GO25-SIN-DIF
 Spot Gas Oil 0.05%                48.38     0.34       0.71       48.04  GO005-SIN
 GO 0.05 Diff                      -1.97     0.01      -0.51       -1.98  GO005-SIN-DIF
 Spot Gas Oil 0.001%               50.05     0.33       0.66       49.72  GO10-SIN
 GO 0.001 Diff                     -0.30     0.00       0.00       -0.30  GO10-SIN-DIF
 Spot Jet/Kero                     44.01     0.20       0.46       43.81  JET-SIN
 Jet/Kero Diff                     -0.50    -0.07      16.28       -0.43  JET-SIN-DIF
                                                                                                                                         
 Brent M1                                                                                
 Gasoil M1                                                                               
 Gasoil M1/M2                                                                            
 Gasoil M2                                                                               
 Regrade M1                                                                              
 Regrade M2                                                                              
 Jet M1                                                                                  
 Jet M1/M2                                                                               
 Jet M2                                                                                  
 Gasoil 500ppm-Dubai                                                                     
 Cracks M1                                                                
 Gasoil 500ppm-Dubai                                                                     
 Cracks M2                                                                
 Jet Cracks M1                                                                           
 Jet Cracks M2                                                                           
 East-West M1                                                                            
 East-West M2                                                                            
 LGO M1                                                                                  
 LGO M1/M2                                                                               
 LGO M2                                                                                  
 Crack LGO-Brent M1                                                                      
 Crack LGO-Brent M2

Source: Reuters (Reporting by Koustav Samanta; Editing by Aditya Soni)