Asia Distillates: Markets turn quiet, traders await more Feb refiner sales

Asia’s middle distillates markets turned slightly quiet on the physical trading window front, with some traders still awaiting more spot refiner February offers.

Deals on the physical trading window were scant, with a buy-sell gap being the key hindrance.

Meanwhile, Taiwan’s CPC Corp closed its sale tender for 10ppm sulphur gasoil loading around mid-February at a small premium below 10 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes.

On the jet fuel front, some enquiries in the shipping market did emerge on the northeast Asia-U.S. west coast trade route, in line with earlier expectations as the arbitrage widened from a week earlier.

Refining margins (GO10SGCKMc1) rebounded to above $15.6 a barrel, erasing some of the past few session gains, activity in paper markets were more brisk.

Cash differentials (GO10-SIN-DIF) closed the trading session at 91 cents a barrel, slightly lower from a day earlier, reflecting the narrower paper market backwardation.

Regrade (JETREG10SGMc1) narrowed slightly to a discount of around $1.1 a barrel, though jet fuel paper markets were thinly discussed.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

– No deals for both fuels

INVENTORIES

– U.S. crude stocks fell last week, driving the Cushing, Oklahoma hub to a 10-year low, while fuel inventories surged, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday.

– Singapore’s middle distillates stockpiles declined further to nearly 8.5 million barrels, as net exports of diesel/gasoil continued to gain despite the country turning net importer of jet fuel/kerosene, official government data showed on Thursday.

REFINERY NEWS

– TotalEnergies’ TTE 238,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas refinery was operating normally on Wednesday, one day after a malfunction on the coker, people familiar with plant operations said.

NEWS

– Saudi Arabia’s crude oil supply to China is set to decline in February from the month before, trade sources said on Thursday, after the kingdom hiked its prices and as OPEC+ extended production cuts in the first quarter.

– Idemitsu Kosan 5019 will begin a trial plantation of the non-edible oilseed tree crop Pongamia in Australia from mid-January to assess its potential as a feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), Japan’s No.2 crude oil refiner said on Thursday.

– The price of prompt Brent crude futures on Wednesday rose to a near five-month high over the price for oil six months later due to tightening supply and expectations for a revival in Chinese demand.
Source: Reuters