Europe Distillates-Diesel cracks under pressure after stocks rise

Northwest European diesel barge refining cracks steadied near $14 a barrel on Friday, close to a 15-month low, after Atlantic basin stocks rose.

Nine barges of 10ppm diesel traded in the Platts window. Exxon, Litasco, Total and BP sold to Gunvor, Glencore and Vitol.

Russia’s seaborne diesel and gasoil exports are expected to fall in August to the lowest since September 2023 at 2.7 million-2.8 million metric tons due to refinery maintenance and domestic fuel demand, LSEG and market sources data show.

Independently held refined oil products stocks in storage in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub rose by 1.1% in the week to Thursday, driven by higher gasoline and middle distillate stocks, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

Gasoil stocks rose by around 2.8% on the week to 2.41 million tons, the data showed.

Gasoil stocks rose after the arrivals of large cargoes into Europe and as a contango structure on the gasoil forward curve helps incentivise putting product into storage, Insights Global’s Lars van Wageningen said.

U.S. distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 300,000 barrels last week to 123.1 million barrels, versus expectations for a 1.1 million-barrel drop in a Reuters poll, Energy Information Administration data showed.

EU and UK diesel and gasoil imports have reached 1.26 million barrels per day so far this month, Kpler data showed, up from about 1 million bpd in July.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)