SINGAPORE: Asia's gasoil differentials for the benchmark 500ppm grade fell for a fifth consecutive session on Thursday in response to a rise in Singapore onshore inventories which also pointed to a weaker outlook for demand, traders said.
With only one trade in the Platts window reported for the benchmark fuel, cash premiums for 500ppm gasoil fell 10 cents to 15 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes.
BP bought 150,000 barrels of 500ppm gasoil from Sietco at a premium of 10 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes. Earlier this week, similar cargoes were traded at premiums of between 20 and 25 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes.
In the swaps market, the front month July-August time spreads flipped from a premium of 10 cents on Wednesday to a discount of 10 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes.
Onshore middle distillates stock levels were at an eleven-week high of 12.672 million barrels in the week to June 15 compared to about 9.118 million barrels in the week to June 17 2015, official data showed.
Chinese imports of gasoil were absent in the week to June 15 compared to imports of about 100,000 tonnes in the week before, the data showed.
India was the largest net importer of diesel into Singapore over the past week, taking in 76,000 tonnes of the fuel, while Argentina was the leading export destination accounting for about 79,000 tonnes.
In China, diesel output fell 5.6 percent in May compared to 14.52 million tonnes last year while kerosene production rose 10 percent to 3.31 million tonnes, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.
In total, China's Jan-May diesel output fell 2.2 percent from last year to 72.52 million tonnes while kerosene production increased 9.5 percent to 15.96 million tonnes.
MARKET NEWS:
- India's monsoon is expected to dump above-average rainfall on the South Asian nation after two years of drought, cutting its use of diesel for irrigation pumps and generators over the third quarter and potentially rejuvenating exports of the oil product.
- France's hardline CGT union workers have extended a strike at the Fos-Lavera oil terminal in the southern port of Marseille until Friday June 17, a union official said.
- OPEC's full-year 2016 oil export revenues will probably fall 15 percent, down for the third straight year and possibly the lowest in more than a decade before rising in 2017, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday.
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