LONDON: Diesel refining margins in northwest Europe slipped on Wednesday but were still close to three-week highs as rash of unplanned outages on the US Gulf Coast and maintenance in the Middle East kept supplies tight.
A spate of outages on the US Gulf Coast has tightened the distillates market on both sides of the Atlantic.
Marathon shut its 459,000 bpd Galveston Bay refinery on Monday night, Phillips 66 shut a unit at its 146,000 bpd refinery in Borger and Total cut production from two CDUs at its 225,500 bpd Port Arthur refinery to 65 percent.
US distillates stocks rose 327,000 bpd contrary to a forecast of a small draw. The stocks rose by 270,000 bpd on the East Coast and fell by 216,000 bpd on the Gulf Coast, EIA numbers showed.
US regulators meanwhile said energy companies must blend 19.28 billion gallons of biofuels with gasoline and diesel next year, setting the annual mandates as required by the US Renewable Fuel Standard.
Indian Oil Corp plans to invest $5.5 billion to gradually raise the capacity of its Nagapattinam plant, its smallest refinery which is co-owned by Iran, to 300,000 bpd.
Workers at the 404,000 barrels per day Pernis oil refinery in the Netherlands were due to conduct a second day of industrial action over a pay dispute. On Tuesday, plant operator Royal Dutch Shell said production there has not been impacted by the action.
The crude market is jittery ahead of next week's OPEC meeting. Market watchers expect the cartel to agree to an output cut on Nov. 30 but doubts linger about the effectiveness of any potential deal.
which analysts think will manage to agree to an output cut but are unsure how during which an oil output cut is expected to be agreed but
GASOIL
No 0.1 pct sulphur gasoil barges traded.
No cargoes were reported.
Barges of 50 ppm gasoil traded at $2.50 - $4.00 a tonne discount to December diesel futures
December Low-Sulphur Gasoil futures were trading $1.25 a tonne higher at $446.50 by 1645 GMT.
The December contract traded at a discount of $3.50 a tonne to the January contract, 50 cents wider.
Benchmark diesel refining margins were at $11.43 a barrel, down a touch from $11.59 a barrel a day earlier, when cracks reached the highest level this month.
DIESEL
Diesel barges traded at $1.00-$1.50 a tonne discounts fob ARA to Ice December low-sulphur gasoil futures, compared with a $1.50 discount a tonne on Tuesday.
No cargoes were reported.
JET FUEL Litasco sold to BP a barge at a premium of $23 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Flushing to December diesel futures.
No cargoes traded.
FUEL OIL
Barges of 3.5 percent sulphur content fuel oil traded at $257.75-$259.25 a tonne fob ARA, higher than the $254.50-$255 a tonne traded on Tuesday.
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