Asia Distillates-Gasoil cracks surge to nine-month high

SINGAPORE: The Asian gasoil margin climbed to its highest since early November on Friday after a sharp decline in European inventories and firm spot demand, traders said.

MARGINS

- Diesel margins on benchmark Dubai crude climbed to $12.98 a barrel on Friday, the highest since the $13.01 reached on Nov. 1, Reuters data showed.

ARA STOCKS

- Gasoil stocks in independent storage at the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) hub declined by 2.9 percent in the week to Thursday, data from Dutch consultancy PJK International showed.

- Stocks stood at about 2.83 million tonnes, having fallen because of strong export demand from the hub to the Mediterranean and West Africa, PJK's Patrick Kulsen said.

- Greek refiner Hellenic Petroleum bought three cargoes of diesel, having declared force majeure on diesel exports last week after an incident at its 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) Elefsina oil refinery.

INDIA DEMAND

- The latest set of Indian trade data shed light on recent tightness in Asian distillates markets, said research consultancy JBC Energy in a note to clients on Friday while pointing to a 115,000 bpd jump in Indian gasoil demand for June.

- "The soaring imports were better explained by the recent shift in diesel sulphur specs to 50ppm," JBC said.

- Looking ahead, JBC expects the start of monsoon season "to dent demand further over the coming weeks, while a gradual wrap-up of maintenance should soon restore supply to more usual levels".

TENDERS:

- Vietnamese gasoil demand was firm, with the country's two largest importers having bought a total of 90,000 tonnes this week for August arrival.

- Vietnam's Petrolimex has bought two gasoil cargoes totalling 70,000 tonnes at 45-50 cent premiums to Singapore quotes free-on-board (FOB).

- The cargoes, at 35,000 tonnes each, are scheduled for loading Aug. 6-10 and Aug. 16-20 from Southeast Asia. The fuel has a minimum sulphur content of 0.05 percent.

- Saigon Petro paid a premium of about 50 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes FOB for two 10,000-tonne 0.05 percent sulphur gasoil cargoes scheduled for loading end-July to early August and Aug. 16-20 from Southeast Asia.

- Separately, Emirates General Petroleum Corporation (Emarat) has bought 60,000 tonnes of jet fuel for Aug. 12-13 delivery at premiums of about $1.30 a barrel.