SINGAPORE: Asian oil product cracks strengthened across the barrel on Friday, driven higher by firm fundamentals and lower crude prices.
Gas oil's front-month premium to Dubai crude rebounded from a one-month low, rising for the first time in four sessions, while fuel oil cracks were off one-week lows in early trade.
The naphtha market extended its gains for second session, with its prompt crack rising to a discount narrower than $6.00 a barrel on the prospect of higher demand in the region.
Asian fixed-price oil swaps were mostly lower across their 12-month forward curves, after Brent crude fell over $1.00 to $122.05 a barrel by 0430 GMT, versus the previous Asian close at 0830 GMT.
Gas oil's May crack rose 44 cents to $21.75 a barrel, coming off its lowest level since March 11, while jet fuel's crack added 65 cents to $22.80 a barrel by 0430 GMT.
Diesel's prompt crack has fallen in the past three sessions on profit-taking, after hitting a 30-month peak above $24.00 a barrel on Monday.
Sentiment has been lifted by a large drawdown of Singapore stocks in the past week and production losses in Japan, although this has been partly offset by higher refinery runs in South Korea, traders said.
The April and May gas oil fixed-price swaps were valued at $137.32 and $136.87 a barrel, down 25-28 cents, or around 0.2 percent for both.
Fuel oil's May crack edged up 16 cents to a discount of $10.54 a barrel to Dubai crude, while June's crack climbed 19 cents to minus $10.94 a barrel.
Singapore onshore inventories climbed to a 15-week peak for the week ending April 13 on heavy Western imports, although supplies are expected to ease from next week as arbitrage cargo arrivals fall significantly until the first half of May.
The April/May time spread, which expires today, was steady at a backwardation of $3.50 a tonne, while the more actively traded May/June contract slipped 13 cents to $4.38 a tonne.
The April and May 180-cst fixed-price swaps were valued at $683.25 and $679.75 a tonne, respectively, both down $3.50, or around 0.5 percent.
Naphtha CFR Japan's front-month June crack rose 80 cents to a discount of $5.97 a barrel to Brent crude, while July's crack gained 68 cents to minus $6.02 a barrel.
The CFR Japan May/June time spread rose 25 cents to $4.75 a tonne, while June/July added 50 cents to $4.00 a tonne.
Sentiment has been lifted by signs of healthy Western demand and petrochemical makers in the region restarting their crackers after maintenance, traders said.
The CFR Japan May swap gained 50 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $1,049.50 a tonne, while the FOB Singapore May swap climbed 25 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $114.95 a barrel.
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