SINGAPORE: The Asia gasoil east-west spread widened on Monday, making it economically viable to ship cargoes from Asia and the Middle East to Europe, traders said.
The EFS, or exchange of futures for swaps, fell to minus $21.33 a tonne, Reuters data showed. The arbitrage economics to ship cargoes west start to look workable when EFS is around minus $18 a tonne, though other factors such as shipping costs also play a part, traders said.
Unipec continued a spree of buying jet fuel cargoes in Singapore, snapping up two cargoes on Monday after buying four cargoes on Friday, traders said.
It is not clear where the Chinese trading company was planning to ship the cargoes to as China's exports of jet fuel are expected to increase this year, they added.
Demand appeared out of the Philippines with Petron seeking a cargo for late February. It was not immediately clear why the refiner was seeking such a prompt cargo. Refiners typically seek prompt cargoes when there is an issue with their operating units.
Sri Lanka's Ceylon Petroleum bought a combination cargo of 110,000 barrels of 500 ppm sulphur gasoil, 125,000 barrels of 92-octane gasoline and 85,000 barrels of 95-octane gasoline for late March to early April delivery from PetroChina.
It paid a premium of $1.98 a barrel above Singapore quotes for the gasoil cargo, traders said. Ceypetco sought gasoil in the spot market after months due to a planned refinery maintenance, they added.
Vietnam's Petrolimex is likely still negotiating to buy spot gasoil cargoes for March, an industry source said. Vietnam's imports of gasoil had increased for March due to the Tet holidays this week, traders said.
Malaysia's Petronas offered more spot gasoil cargoes for first half of March loading, traders said. Petronas' offer of gasoil had increased in recent months after it bought out the shares of P66 from a joint venture refinery in Melaka.
In the Gulf, some spot demand appeared with Emarat seeking 80,000 tonnes of the fuel for March and April delivery, traders said.
Jet fuel supply in the Middle East is slightly tight with a few refineries undergoing planned maintenance, traders said. The output from the new joint venture Yasref refinery is mainly diesel and there is no jet fuel produced for exports, they added.
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