off-the-wire

US Cash Crude-Mars Sour eases for second straight day

Kitco Media
By Reuters
Published:
Updated:
Reuters
May 11 (Reuters) - U.S. coastal grade Mars Sour eased on Thursday for the second straight day, after surging early this week to its strongest since September 2020 on higher demand for sour crudes, dealers said. Mars Sour weakened to a 50-cent premium after touching a $1.60 premium on Tuesday.


Light Louisiana Sweet , another coastal grade, firmed for its sixth straight session, gained 50 cents to a midpoint of a $3.65 premium, its strongest in more than a month, on the continued shutdown of Shell's Zydeco oil pipeline. Inland grades WTI Midland weakened 5 cents while West Texas Sour firmed 5 cents on Wednesday. U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told lawmakers on Thursday her department could start repurchasing oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) after completing a congressionally mandated sale next month. OPEC also lifted its estimate for Chinese oil demand, saying it now expects it to rise by 800,000 barrels per day, up from the 760,000 bpd forecast last month, adding to its recovery from strict COVID-19 containment measures. Recovery in Chinese demand have buoyed U.S. exports, with April exports to China touching nearly 900,000 barrels per day, the highest since May 2020.


In refining news, TotalEnergies SE reported that power was restored at its 238,000 barrel-per-day Port Arthur, Texas, refinery following an outage caused by a lightning strike.


* Light Louisiana Sweet for June delivery gained 50 cents to a midpoint of a $3.15 premium and was seen bid and offered between a $3.00 and $3.30 a barrel premium to U.S. crude futures ?


* Mars Sour fell 20 cents to a midpoint of a 50-cent premium and was seen bid and offered between a 25-cent and 75-cent a barrel premium to U.S. crude futures ?


* WTI Midland fell 5 cents at a midpoint of a 50-cent premium and was seen bid and offered between a 30-cent and 70-cent a barrel premium to U.S. crude futures ?


* West Texas Sour fell 5 cents at a midpoint of a 25-cent discount and was seen bid and offered between ?a discount of 50 cents and parity to U.S. crude futures
* WTI at East Houston , also known as MEH, traded between a 70-cent and $1.00 a barrel premium to U.S. crude futures ?


* ICE Brent July futures fell $1.43 to settle at $74.98 a barrel on Thursday?.


* WTI June crude futures fell $1.69 to settle at $70.87 a barrel on Thursday?.


* The Brent/WTI spread widened 13 cents to minus $3.89, after hitting a high of minus $3.82 and a low of minus $4.09. (Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar; Editing by David Gregorio)

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