Asian refining margins for jet fuel climbed on Friday, while front-month spread for the aviation fuel widened its contango amid market concerns that demand would likely remain muted through the first half of 2020. Refining margins, also known as cracks for jet fuel, crawled up to $2.86 a barrel over Dubai crude during Asian trading hours, from $2.29 per barrel a day earlier. The cracks, however, slipped 3.7% this week, Refinitiv Eikon data showed. They had slumped over 61% in the week ended March 20, in their steepest decline in ...

British wholesale gas prices fell on Friday morning as supplies from Norway rose, while gas demand for power generation was forecast lower due to higher wind power output. * The day-ahead contract was down 1.0 pence at 19.00 pence per therm by 0842 GMT. * “The oversupply is helped by higher Langeled flows (from Norway) and forecasts for lower gas (demand) for power,” Refinitiv gas analysts said. * Total LNG send-out is nominated at 64 million cubic metres (mcm) on Friday, up from 61 mcm the previous day, Refinitiv data ...

Vietnam’s oil product and LPG demand has plummeted in the first quarter due to measures taken to contain the coronavirus outbreak, leading to bulging stockpiles and storage shortages, officials from state-run oil companies said. This has made it difficult for refiners Dung Quat and Nghi Son to sell fuel in the domestic market, as customers delay receiving cargoes, an official with Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group, or PetroVietnam, told S&P Global Platts recently. Retail stations are hesitant to stock up and buy transport fuels because they are waiting for ...

Russian gas giant Gazprom is “optimistic” about the European market in Q3 and Q4, its CEO Alexei Miller told Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday, saying it was “too early” to draw conclusions about the state of the market from the first few months of the year. Russian gas exports to Europe have fallen sharply since the turn of the year, with supplies in January and February down by some 25% year on year to 20.4 Bcm, according to an analysis of S&P Global Platts Analytics data. The fall in supplies ...

Oil refiners from Texas to Thailand are bracing for deeper output cuts, bruised by an unprecedented demand shock as more countries lock down and restrict travel to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Global fuel demand is set to drop by as much as 15% to 20% in the second quarter as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 22,000 people, shut most worldwide air travel and has numerous countries imposing lockdowns keeping people at home and out of their cars. The sudden stoppage in activity, ...

Asian refining margins for jet fuel dipped on Thursday as global airlines have kept most of their flights grounded to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Refining margins or cracks for jet fuel fell on Thursday to $2.29 a barrel over Dubai crude during Asian trade, down from $2.51 per barrel a day earlier. Cracks for the aviation fuel are currently over 71% lower than the historical average for this time of the year in the last 12 years, Refinitiv Eikon data showed. Global airlines have grounded flights on international ...

JXTG Holdings, Japan’s biggest oil refiner, said on Thursday it expects a full-year net loss of 300 billion yen ($2.7 billion) as plunging oil prices cut its inventory values and the coronavirus outbreak reduced demand for oil products. The company, which is also a copper miner and smelter, had previously expected 155 billion yen in net profit for the fiscal year ending March 31. “We are cutting our forecast due to falling prices in oil and copper amid the spreading coronavirus outbreak and lower demand and margins of our oil ...

British wholesale gas prices declined on Thursday morning due to higher liquefied natural gas (LNG) send-out and expectations of stronger wind output. * The day-ahead contract was down 0.80 pence at 21.75 pence per therm by 0840 GMT. * Gas for immediate delivery edged down by 0.05 pence to 22.25 p/therm. * “Lower gas for power demand together with excessive LNG deliveries due to force majeure might weigh on the gas price,” Refinitiv gas analysts said. * Total LNG send-out is nominated at 62 million cubic metres (mcm), 14 mcm ...

Reforming margins in the US Gulf Coast are at the lowest in over a year amid a saturated gasoline market as stay-at-home orders crush demand. The spread between USGC pipeline unleaded 87 gasoline and heavy naphtha has registered at 7 cents/gal over the past four trading days, its lowest level in over a year. The spread was last lower on February 25, 2019, at 6 cents/gal. The spread between finished gasoline and heavy naphtha has averaged 16.4 cents/gal over the past 10 days, 52% lower than the previous 10-day average ...

India’s gas demand is expected to plunge this month, and possibly remain low in coming months, as its economy comes to a standstill due to the 3-week lockdown triggered by the coronavirus outbreak, according to traders, company executives and officials of state-run companies. The impact on gas demand will be exacerbated by the recent collapse in oil prices, which have fallen below the $30/b mark and are at near parity — a price level equivalent to natural gas that allows petroleum fuels to displace gas in several industries. The double ...

With only a week to go before OPEC+ countries start flooding the world’s total oil production with an estimated extra 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) amid the Covid-19 crisis, building one of the biggest oil supply gluts the world has ever seen, UK operator INEOS has decided to postpone its scheduled maintenance for the North Sea Forties pipeline system (FPS) in a move that Rystad Energy calculates will add several hundred thousands of extra barrels to the market every day. Based on this development, Rystad Energy has raised its ...

European power and gas prices have sunk to new lows as lockdowns due to coronavirus dent energy demand, though signs of a recovery in liquefied natural gas (LNG) buying in Asia could lend support. The coronavirus outbreak has triggered a sudden and unprecedented slump in energy demand in Europe and stoppages in most power-intensive manufacturing at a time that residential heat markets for gas move into spring mode, when usage drops. Some gas producers and operators, such as Norway’s Equinor and gas system operator Gassco, have even said they are ...

Refining margins are turning negative on the drop in gasoline demand and global refiners began to cut runs to meet the lower demand and delayed planned work to manage the spread of COVID-19, an analysis from S&P Global Platts showed Monday. Atlantic Basin refiners announced run cuts as some margins dipped into negative territory, a result of the sharp fall-off in gasoline demand resulting from widespread stay-at-home mandates keeping drivers off the road. “Refining margins are a simple mathematical calculation. Without outlet for products, it doesn’t matter if [they are] ...

Tokyo Gas Co Ltd will decide whether to continue the Tokyo 2020 Olympics sponsorship for another year depending on conditions, including cost, its president said on Wednesday. “We don’t have an answer to whether or not we will continue our sponsorship as we have just heard about the postponement,” Tokyo Gas President Takashi Uchida told a news conference on the company’s new business plans. “We will make a decision after we learn about details,” he said. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Spot LNG prices in Asia were under pressure following India’s announcement to impose a 21-day lockdown and a force majeure declaration by the country’s Adani Ports and Logistics at its Mundra and Tuna ports Tuesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi directed 1.3 billion Indian citizens to stay in their homes for three weeks from Wednesday to contain the spread of coronavirus, which is expected to impact energy consumption and logistics at the world’s third largest oil importer and fourth biggest LNG consumer. The announcement was followed by a force majeure declaration ...