Asia’s diesel market structures recovered slightly from last week’s losses but cash differentials extended declines amid lower-priced offers on the trading window despite a lack of physical deals.

Likewise, refiners’ spot activity slowed slightly as some refiners had earlier cleared their December sale cargoes a week earlier.
The east-west price spreads hovered at discounts of slightly more than $30 per ton, narrowing from last Friday’s close, with some trade sources saying it is slightly more profitable for swing sellers to ship cargoes east instead.

Refining margins eased further to $18.3 a barrel, slightly more than five-month lows.

Cash differentials slipped again, closing at nearly seven-month lows of around 29 cents per barrel.

Some jet fuel sale tenders which closed last week were still at premiums of 50-80 cents per barrel, reflecting the firmer prompt market trading sentiment in comparison with diesel.

Regrade continued trading at premiums of 40-50 cents a barrel, little changed from the previous session, though forward month regrade also turned into a slight premium.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

– No deal for gasoil or jet fuel

NEWS

– China’s November imports of fuel oil rose 15% from a month earlier, customs data showed on Saturday.

– The U.S. Coast Guard is pursuing an oil tanker in international waters near Venezuela, officials told Reuters on Sunday, in what would be the second such operation this weekend and the third in less than two weeks if successful.

– Oil prices rose on Monday after officials said the U.S. had intercepted an oil tanker in international waters off the coast of Venezuela, raising fresh supply uncertainty.

– A Ukrainian drone attack damaged two vessels, two piers and sparked a fire in a village on the Black Sea coast in Russia’s Krasnodar region, regional authorities said on Monday.
Source: Reuters