Asia’s middle distillates markets kicked off the week with thin window liquidity, as prices barely moved, though traders were still looking for a direction on more October refiner sales.

Paper market structures mostly weakened from the previous trading session as they neared mid-month rollover in active trading months.

Refining margins (GO10SGCKMc1) extended gains to nearly $20 a barrel, but still hovered at slightly more than one-month highs.

On the trading window, western trading major Glencore was a key bidder, though lower-priced offers were mostly scant. Cash differentials (GO10-SIN-DIF) gained one cent to premiums of 88 cents per barrel as a result.

Regrade (JETREG10SGMc1) closed the trading session at discounts of $1.9 per barrel, widening slightly from the previous close.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

– No deals for both fuels

NEWS

– China’s crude oil imports rose 0.8% in August from a year earlier as both state-owned and independent refineries maintained high operating rates.
– OPEC+ has agreed to further raise oil production from October as its leader Saudi Arabia pushes to regain market share, while slowing the pace of increases compared with previous months due to an anticipated weakening of global demand.
– New sanctions on buyers of Russian oil could disrupt crude flows, energy trader Gunvor’s GGL.UL global head of research and analysis, Frederic Lasserre, said on Monday.
– Bahrain’s state oil firm Bapco Energies expects to commission its Sitra refinery expansion in the fourth quarter of this year, and will be looking to buy heavier crudes than it now runs and more liquefied natural gas, a senior executive said on Monday.
Source: Reuters