Market analysis

摘要

Crude oil prices were fairly fat last week. Brent settled Thursday at $43.37/bbl for a weekly average of $43.20, up 0.6%. WTI settled at $40.75/bbl for a weekly average of $40.59, up 0.4%. The US toluene market was very thin; the price spread to reformate was positive, but too weak to incentivize extraction. In Europe, demand was low, liquidity thin, and bids well below breakeven production economics. Asian prices were in contango; supply continued to increase on the end of heavy turnarounds.