SINGAPORE: The Asian jet fuel cash premium continued to firm on Wednesday as Unipec continued its buying spree of the aviation fuel in Singapore for a fourth consecutive day, industry sources said.
The Chinese trading arm of Sinopec bought 300,000 barrels of jet fuel on Wednesday, making its total purchase of the fuel at 1 million barrels since last Friday, which is an unusually large purchase of jet fuel in Singapore, traders said.
It was unclear where the company was planning to ship the cargoes to as China is expected to crank up its exports of jet fuel on increased production, they added.
The premiums for 10 ppm sulphur diesel have been reducing due to more spot supplies of the fuel from North Asia, a Singapore-based trader said.
Spot cargoes for 500 ppm sulphur gasoil have been snapped up for the month due to firm demand from Egypt and fewer cargoes available, he added.
"When the spread was wider earlier, refiners maximised the production of 10 ppm sulphur diesel, which is why there seems to be a shortage of 500 ppm (sulphur gasoil) now," he said.
Malaysia's Petronas likely sold 300,000 barrels of 500 ppm sulphur gasoil for March 10 to 12 loading from Melaka at a discount of 30 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes, traders said.
The buyer was likely an oil major, they added.
The Malaysian state-owned company also sold a 10 ppm sulphur diesel cargo for March 9 to 11 loading from Melaka at parity to Singapore quotes, they said.
Both deals could not be confirmed.
Spot demand from Egyptian General Petroleum Corp (EGPC) supported gasoil sentiments with the company seeking up to 177,000 tonnes of 0.1 percent sulphur gasoil for delivery in March, traders said.
The volumes are less than half of what it sought for February delivery, though the reason was not immediately clear.
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