Naphtha and jet fuel eke out small price gains in the Asian spot market

摘要

Gasoline and ULSD saw new record lows during the week to April 17,but gasoline's Friday price was flat compared to the previous Thursday.(Markets were closed on Friday,April 10,ahead of Easter weekend.)High-sulfur bunkers and fuel oils posted the week's sharpest price declines,dropping 12-22%.The extension of India's nationwide lockdown darkened sentiment for diesel in the Asian market since the middle-distillate is used more heavily there for personal travel than it is in other Asian-Pacific countries,according to Kostantsa Rangelova of JBC Energy.Referring to operational reductions recently being undertaken by refiners around the world,she also said,”The recent weakness that has come into the diesel market is showing us that run cuts thus far have potentially not been severe enough.The crack to Dubai for 10-ppm-sulfur gasoil inched up by 18￠/bbl over the week to April 17 to end at $8.66/bbl.Cash differentials fell by $1.17/bbl over the week to end at a $2.84/bbl discount.April 3's $1.12/bbl had been the largest discount since 10-ppm-sulfur gasoil became the benchmark in Jan.2018,but the differential reached new lows on each of the seven subsequent trading days through April 15,when it hit a $3.10/bbl discount.The outright price was down by $3.28/bbl over the week to end at $33.30/bbl after having dipped to $31.31/bbl on Tuesday-the lowest price in Reuters data going back to Dec.2011.Enterprise Singapore reported middle distillate inventories in Singapore surged to a 43-month high,and the data indicated average inventories for the 52 weeks through April 15 were higher by 72K bbl on the week and by 958K bbl on the year.