Asia's VLSFO market came under pressure in the month on tepid bunkering demand, while supply inflows remained steady.
Singapore's 0.5% VLSFO cash differential closed at $5.50 a tonne on Friday, steadying in single-digit premiums over Singapore quotes.
Meanwhile, the market structure for high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) continued to widen in backwardation, as growing domestic seasonal demand in the Middle East could tighten exports to Asia in the coming months.
The front-month 380-cst HSFO crack climbed to a discount of $11.72 a barrel at Friday's Asia close, maintaining nine-month highs and ticking up by 15% from the start of the month.
ARA INVENTORIES Fuel oil inventories in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub dipped 1% to 1.23 million tonnes in the week ended March 30, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.
OTHER NEWS
- Oil prices ticked down on Friday as bullish sentiment about Chinese demand and potential Middle Eastern supply disruptions was tempered by uncertainty over U.S. economic data to be released later in the day.
- PetroChina said that it expects Chinese refined fuel demand to rise 3% this year from pre-COVID levels in 2019 and that of natural gas to be up 5.5% from last year, after reporting a record net profit for 2022. - China's Chambroad Petrochemicals is set to start operating a refining unit in the southern province of Hainan in May to produce mainly bitumen with an aim to export the material used to pave roads, the independent refiner's chairman told Reuters. - Shell has decided not to go ahead with two projects it was studying to produce biofuels and base oils in Singapore, a company spokesperson said.
WINDOW TRADES - 180-cst HSFO: No trade - 380-cst HSFO: No trade - 0.5% VLSFO: No trade
ASSESSMENTS
FUEL OIL
CASH ($/T) ASIA CLOSE CHANGE PREV CLOSE RIC
Cargo - 0.5% VLSFO 552.09 2.14 549.95 Diff - 0.5% VLSFO 5.50 -0.59 6.09 Cargo - 180cst 425.27 4.82 420.45 Diff - 180cst 1.57 0.32 1.25 Cargo - 380cst 422.08 4.98 417.10 Diff - 380cst 7.75 -0.25 8.00 Bunker (Ex-wharf) Premium - 380cst 12.50 0.50 12.00
Bunker (Ex-wharf) Premium - 0.5% VLSFO 10.00 0.00 10.00
For a list of derivatives prices, including
margins, please double click the RICs below.
Brent M1 180cst M1 180cst M1/M2 180cst M2 Visco M1 Visco M2 380cst M1 380cst M1/M2 380cst M2 Cracks 180-Dubai M1 Cracks 180-Dubai M2 East-West M1 East-West M2 Barges M1 Barges M1/M2 Barges M2 Crack Barges-Brent M1 Crack Barges-Brent M2 (Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
