LONDON: Diesel refining margins in northwest Europe fell sharply on Wednesday as refineries that were experiencing shutdown began to restart.
Ineos was in the process of restarting its 240,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Lavera, France, oil refinery on Wednesday after a power outage on Monday forced its shutdown, according to trading sources.
The company on Wednesday shut a 65,000 bpd crude unit at its Grangemouth refinery and may bring forward maintenance work at the plant in Scotland due to the unplanned outage at its Forties North Sea crude pipeline.
Ineos is also planning to shut down the 110,000 bpd crude unit at the plant early next week, according to trade sources.
Repsol aims to restart a crude distillation unit at its 220,000 barrels-per-day Bilbao (Petronor) oil refinery in northern Spain by the end of the week after an unplanned outage, a spokesman for the Spanish firm said.
US distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 1.4 million barrels last week, versus expectations for a 902,000-barrel increase, Energy Information Administration data showed on Wednesday. GASOIL
Vitol sold two gasoil barges to Trafigura at $5.50 a tonne below January diesel futures.
Three barges of gasoil with 50 ppm sulphur content traded at a $1 a tonne discount to January diesel futures.
The January contract was trading at $561.50 a tonne, $10.25 a tonne lower than the previous settlement.
The January contract traded 75 cents below the February contract.
The January diesel refining margin to Brent crude futures was 3.48 percent lower at $13 a barrel.
DIESEL
11 diesel barges traded flat or at a 25 cent a tonne discount to January diesel futures, compared with 50 cent premiums on Tuesday.
No cargoes traded.
JET FUEL
Litasco sold a fob Flushing/Amsterdam barge to Vitol at $45 a tonne above January diesel and CCI sold a fob ARA barge to Vitol at $44 a tonne above the same benchmark. This compares with a trade at a $45 a tonne premium the previous session.
Gunvor sold to Shell one cargo, cif Rotterdam, at a $43 a tonne premium to January diesel, compared with a trade at a $44 a tonne premium the previous day.
FUEL OIL
Barges of fuel oil with 3.5 percent sulphur content traded at $332-$334 a tonne fob ARA, compared with $336.50-$340 a tonne on Tuesday.
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