A handful of Asian buyers covered their requirements the past two days for second-half March deliveries and retreated to the sidelines.
Deals were scant in the open trading market as well. There were talks of heavy naphtha from the United States heading over to Asia for April arrival, weighing on forward prices as a result, with the prompt-forward price backwardation still valued at $11 a tonne.
Gasoline cracks firmed again to $14.17 a barrel for the second consecutive session as buying interest for February and March parcels strengthened, despite U.S. gasoline futures posting slight declines overnight. TENDERS
- Taiwan's Formosa offers March loading alkylates
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS - No naphtha deal, one gasoline deal
NEWS - A fire broke out at an oil refinery in Russia's southern Rostov region near the border with Ukraine, state media reported on Wednesday, citing the emergencies ministry. "In Rostov Region, Novoshakhtinsk city ... a message was received at 10:24 a.m. Moscow time about a fire on the territory of an oil products processing plant," the ministry said.
- India, the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer, has diversified its sources of energy imports but will continue to buy most of its oil from the Middle East for a long time, the South Asian country's oil minister said on Wednesday. - Oil prices extended their two-day winning streak on Wednesday, posting slight gains as the dollar weakened, while investors awaited more inventory data for clearer cues on demand trends. - Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday that European Union moves to add what he called "exemptions" to its price cap on oil products showed that Russian oil was still in demand. INVENTORIES - U.S. crude oil inventories fell last week, while fuel inventories rose according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday. Crude stocks fell by about 2.2 million barrels in the week ended Feb. 3, they said. Gasoline inventories rose by about 5.3 million barrels, while distillate stocks rose by about 1.1 million barrels, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. - Light distillate stock levels at Fujairah Oil Industry Zone hit a three-week high to 7.363 million barrels for the week ended Feb. 6, according to industry information service S&P Global Commodity Insights. (Reporting by Trixie Yap; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
