Asia distillates—Gasoil cracks gain, cash premiums crawl up
SINGAPORE, (Reuters) - Asian refining margins for 10-ppm gasoil climbed on Wednesday, while cash premiums for the industrial and transportation fuel inched higher amid a slight uptick in buying interests in the physical market.
Refining margins, also known as cracks, for 10-ppm gasoil rose to $14.80/bbl over Dubai crude during Asian trade, up from $14.66/bbl on Tuesday.
Cracks for the benchmark gasoil grade in Singapore, which have dropped about 11% in the last four weeks, were currently about 1% lower than their seasonal average for this time of the year in the last three years, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.
The gasoil market would likely bottom out sometime soon as some refinery run cuts are underway, which would help tighten supplies to an extent, a trader said on Wednesday.
Cash premiums for gasoil with 10 ppm sulfur content were at $0.18/bbl to Singapore quotes on Wednesday, $0.02/bbl higher from a day earlier.
The front-month time spread for 10-ppm gasoil widened by $0.05 to trade at a premium of $0.20/bbl on Wednesday, Refinitiv data showed.
Meanwhile, cash differentials for jet fuel were at a discount of $0.61/bbl to Singapore quotes on Wednesday, compared with a discount of $0.62/bbl on Tuesday.
Jet fuel cracks eased to $14.15/bbl over Dubai crude on Wednesday, compared with $14.21/bbl in the previous session.
Fujairah stocks. Middle-distillate inventories in the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone fell 14.1% from a week earlier to 3 MMbbl in the week to Nov. 25, data via S&P Global Platts showed.
Stocks of middle distillates in the Fujairah oil hub have averaged 2.2 MMbbl so far in 2019, Reuters calculations showed. This compares with a weekly average of 2.8 MMbbl in 2018. Compared with year-ago levels, weekly Fujairah middle distillate stocks were 34.5% higher.
API inventory data. U.S. crude stocks rose last week while gasoline inventories increased and distillate stocks fell, data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute showed on Tuesday.
Crude inventories rose by 3.6 MMbbl in the week to Nov. 22 to 449.6 MMbbl, compared with analysts' expectations for a decrease of 418,000 bbl.
Distillate fuels stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 665,000 bbl, compared with expectations for a 750,000-bbl gain, the API data showed.
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