LONDON: European gasoline cracks remained under pressure on Friday as slack demand in Europe and high US stocks kept buyers out of the market.
Cold weather in the United States has kept drivers off the road, dampening demand for the fuel, pressuring RBOB prices and removing any arbitrage for moving cargoes from Europe to the United States.
However traders said that there was likely to be some support for prices in coming weeks as some refiners have started to go into maintenance and others have cut runs.
"Refiners are keeping runs very low," a trader said.
Naphtha held relatively firm, with demand from Asia helping to support prices, traders said.
Naphtha is also being supported by the relatively strong price of propane, which is supported by the icy US weather.
Millions of Americans are feeling the pinch of a propane shortage this week as bitter cold exposes the supply vulnerabilities of a fuel that heats homes, schools and businesses across wide swathes of the United States.
GASOLINE
One barge of benchmark Eurobob traded in the Platts price assessment window at $925 a tonne fob ARA, compared to $930 on Thursday. Total sold to Shell.
Some 13,000 tonnes traded ahead of the window at $922-$930 a tonne fob ARA, down from the $931-$935 a tonne fob ARA on Thursday. Shell sold 4,000 tonnes to Vitol and 2,000 tonnes to Gunvor.
The February swap was trading at around $932.50 a tonne at close, down from the $937.50 on Thursday.
One barge of premium unleaded gasoline traded at $943 a tonne fob ARA, down from $948 on Thursday. Morgan Stanley sold to Total.
By 1644 GMT, Eurobob's crack to dated Brent was at around $0.835 a barrel, down from the $0.907 on Thursday.
Brent crude oil futures were 32 cents lower at $107.26 a barrel at 1639 GMT.
US RBOB gasoline futures in New York were down 0.39 percent at $2.6513 a gallon, and the prompt crack was at $14.99 a barrel.
NAPHTHA
Three cargoes traded in the window at $921-$922 a tonne. Koch, Total and Litasco sold to BP and Gunvor. Koch appeared on both sides of trades.
The naphtha crack swap for February was at minus $4 per barrel versus minus $3.50 on Thursday.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.