Asia’s diesel markets were thinly discussed on the trading window ahead of the holiday season, though some sellers are still likely to emerge for January in the next two weeks.

While refiner selling activity slowed down slightly, market participants were still expecting sellers to surface in the coming week, especially from China, given a lack of direction in export quotas for now.

Some Japan-origin barrels have been sold off at discounts of $1.20-1.40 a barrel linked to Singapore quotes in the past one week, traders said.

Refining margins hovered slightly above $18 a barrel.

The 10ppm sulphur gasoil cash differentials steadied at 29 cents premium a barrel amid limited discussions on the trading window.

Jet fuel buying activity for January surfaced from one regional importer, with Indonesia’s Pertamina seeking for two cargoes via a procurement tender that closes today.

Meanwhile, the front-month arbitrage window between Asia and the U.S. west coast widened for the first time in almost a month to slightly more than $10 a barrel. Freight costs to ship around 40,000 metric tons of fuel on the Asia-USWC route were at almost $1.8 million.

Regrade remained at premiums of 40-50 cents a barrel.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

– No deal for jet fuel or gasoil

INVENTORIES

– U.S. crude oil and distillate stockpiles were expected to have fallen last week, while gasoline inventories likely rose, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday.

REFINERY NEWS

– U.S. oil refiners are expected to have about 145,000 barrels per day (bpd) of capacity offline in the week ending December 26, increasing available refining capacity by 41,000 bpd, research company IIR Energy said on Monday.

NEWS

– Indonesia has allocated 15.646 million kilolitres of palm-based biodiesel for its fuel blending mandate in 2026, Ernest Gunawan, the secretary general of the biodiesel producers group APROBI, told Reuters on Tuesday.

– Tanker loading in Venezuela dwindled on Monday, with most ships moving oil cargoes only between domestic ports following U.S. action against two more ships and as state-run energy company PDVSA struggles to recover from a cyberattack, according to tracking data and sources.
– Global commodities trader and miner Glencore has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Dutch fuel supplier FincoEnergies for an undisclosed sum, the Dutch company said on Monday.

– Oil prices slipped on Tuesday as traders weighed geopolitical risks against bearish fundamentals, after the U.S. signaled it might sell the Venezuelan crude it has seized while Ukraine’s attacks on Russian vessels and piers heightened fears of supply disruption.
Source: Reuters