SINGAPORE: Asian refining margins for 10 ppm gasoil rose to a two-week high on Thursday, while cash premiums for the industrial fuel grade climbed as the April/May time spread widened its backwardated structure.
Refining margins, or cracks, for 10 ppm gasoil rose to $34.49 a barrel over Dubai crude during Asian trading hours, the strongest since March 10. The cracks were at $32.11 per barrel a day earlier.
Cash premiums for the benchmark gasoil grade with 10 ppm sulphur content were at $6.02 a barrel to Singapore quotes, compared with $5.98 per barrel on Wednesday.
The front-month spread for 10 ppm gasoil traded at $10.80 per barrel on Thursday, the widest in two weeks. The time spread was at $10.30 a barrel on Wednesday.
INVENTORIES
- Singapore's middle distillate inventories inched up 0.5% to 7.6 million barrels in the week to March 23, according to Enterprise Singapore data. This week's stocks, however, were 45% lower than a year earlier. [O/SING1]
- Weekly Singapore middle distillate inventories have averaged about 7.8 million barrels so far this year, compared with an average of 11.8 million barrels in 2021, Reuters calculations showed.
- U.S. distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 2.1 million barrels in the week to March 18, versus expectations for a 1.4 million-barrel drop, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. [EIA/S]
BIODIESEL MANDATES
- Top palm oil producers Indonesia and Malaysia remain committed to their mandatory biodiesel programmes, despite higher prices of the feedstock, to meet green energy goals, senior officials said on Thursday.
- Indonesia and Malaysia use palm oil as blending for biodiesel. Indonesia since early 2020 has been using mandatory B30, a biodiesel containing 30% of palm-based fuel, the highest mandatory mix in the world, to slash imports of diesel fuel.
OTHER NEWS
- Indian private refiner Nayara Energy, part-owned by Russia's Rosneft , has purchased Russian oil after a gap of a year, buying about 1.8 million barrels of Urals from trader Trafigura, two trade sources said and Refinitiv data showed. Read full story- Reuters