European spot prices end mixed as gasoline crashes again.

摘要

In the week to July 18, gasoline spot prices continued to slide, down for the fourth straight week. Middle distillates and LSFO prices also decreased, by a lesser degree, while naphtha and HSFO spot prices inched up. ULSD barge differentials fell following the release of inventory data that showed gasoil stocks jumped on the week to their highest since April 2012. Also putting downward pressure on diesel prices, and middle distillates in general, was the return on Thursday to normal operations at BP's 400K-b/d Rotterdam, Netherlands refinery, which had an unplanned outage at the 200K-b/d CDU for about a week. However, falling spot prices encouraged bargain buyers to step off of the sidelines, with demand emerging from Germany, France, and Switzerland, traders said. Fundamentals in the Mediterranean were also mostly bearish, but stocks could soon tighten as imports from Russia ease back, underpinning sentiment. Jet fuel prices found some support amid tight stocks, but inventories rose on the week, injecting bearish sentiment. Arbitrage arrivals for Aug. from Asia and the Middle East were pegged at around 820K mt (6.4MM bbl). Jet fuel barge prices were not reported for the week. Heating oil prices, meanwhile, crept down.