SINGAPORE, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Asia's middle distillates spot activity continued to be upbeat on Wednesday, amid ongoing refiner sales and brisk trading liquidity on the window as Vitol scooped up two spot jet fuel cargoes.
Small pockets of buying interest emerged from Indonesia's Pertamina once again for prompt arrival cargoes, though refiners' spot sale prices for February cargoes were little changed from January for now.
Markets are still seeing sufficient supplies in the near term, with swing barrels for January still pivoting east instead of west for diesel, one trade source said.
Meanwhile, for jet fuel, sales from China refiners remained upbeat, with at least two to three cargoes being sold for January loading since early week.
Deals were still done in a wide range, but the opened arbitrage for Asian exports to the U.S. West Coast still proved to be supportive for two northeast Asian refiners' sales at premiums, one refinery source said.
Refining margins declined for the third straight session to slightly below $15.50 a barrel.
At the market's close, cash differentials fell slightly to a premium of 95 cents a barrel, as lower-priced offers emerged from the first trading session this week.
Regrade was little changed at a discount of $1.2 a barrel.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
- No gasoil deal, two jet fuel deals
INVENTORIES
- U.S. crude oil stocks fell last week while fuel inventories rose, market sources said, citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday.
- Middle distillates stockpiles held at Fujairah Oil Industry Zone went back up to 2.151 million barrels for the week ended Jan. 6, reversing most of last week's decline, according to industry information service S&P Global Commodity Insights.
REFINERY NEWS
- China's Sinopec Zhenhai refinery said a fire that broke out on one of its crude distillation units late on Tuesday had been put out, with no injuries reported.
NEWS
- Iran is pushing to recoup 25 million barrels of oil from China that has been stuck for six years in Chinese ports due to sanctions imposed by then-U.S. President Donald Trump, three Iranian and one Chinese source familiar with the matter said.
- Indonesia has clamped down on exports of used cooking oil $(UCO)$ and palm oil residue to ensure supply to domestic cooking oil and biodiesel industries, the government said in a new regulation on Wednesday.
- India's fuel consumption in December rose 2.1% year-on-year to 20.67 million metric tons, its highest level since last May, oil ministry data showed on Tuesday.
- Oil prices rose on Wednesday as supplies from Russia and OPEC members tightened, while data showing an unexpected increase in U.S. job openings pointed to expanding economic activity and consequent growth in oil demand.
- Shell trimmed its liquefied natural gas production outlook for the fourth quarter on Wednesday and said oil and gas trading results are expected to be significantly lower than in the third quarter.
PRICES
MIDDLE DISTILLATES
CASH ($/BBL) ASIA CLOSE Change Prev RIC
Close
Spot Gas Oil 0.5% 87.32 1.27 86.05
GO 0.5 Diff -5.32 0.03 -5.35
Spot Gas Oil 0.25% 92.81 1.21 91.60
GO 0.25 Diff 0.17 -0.03 0.20
Spot Gas Oil 0.05% 93.05 1.21 91.84
GO 0.05 Diff 0.41 -0.03 0.44 <GO005-SIN-DIF
>
Spot Gas Oil 0.001% 93.58 1.18 92.39
GO 0.001 Diff 0.94 -0.05 1.00
Spot Jet/Kero 91.28 1.44 89.85
Jet/Kero Diff 0.24 0.10 0.14
For a list of derivatives prices, including margins,
please double click the RICs below.
Brent M1
Gasoil M1
Gasoil M1/M2
Gasoil M2
Regrade M1
Regrade M2
Jet M1
Jet M1/M2
Jet M2
Gasoil 500ppm-Dubai
Cracks M1
Gasoil 500ppm-Dubai
Cracks M2
Jet Cracks M1
Jet Cracks M2
East-West M1
East-West M2
LGO M1
LGO M1/M2
LGO M2
Crack LGO-Brent M1
Crack LGO-Brent M2
(Reporting by Trixie Yap; Editing by Vijay Kishore)
((trixie.yap@thomsonreuters.com;))
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