Asia Distillates: Gasoil cash discount widens, jet discount narrows

SINGAPORE: Asia’s cash differentials for 10 ppm gasoil fell for a sixth straight session on Monday to their biggest discounts in nearly three weeks as elevated exports from China and the spread of COVID-19 in some Asian markets weighed on the market, trade sources said.

But some industry participants expected the market to balance out in the near term as refinery turnarounds help limit near-term supplies and on expectations of fresh exports to the West.

Cash discounts for gasoil with 10 ppm sulphur content widened to 30 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes, from a discount of 25 cents per barrel on Friday and marking the lowest since April 1.

The front-month time spread for the benchmark gasoil grade in Singapore, which has stayed in a contango structure since early March, slipped to minus 15 cents per barrel on Monday, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

Jet fuel cash differentials, however, jumped to minus 15 cents a barrel on Monday, up from minus 34 cents at the end of last week on hopes that a travel bubble discussion could help support the aviation fuel market. Elevated exports of jet fuel from the Singapore storage and trading hub last week also helped buoy the market.

China’s diesel exports in March hovered near a record level, data showed on Sunday, as companies battled to ease brimming domestic inventories.

Diesel shipments totalled 2.81 million tonnes last month, versus the previous monthly record at 2.83 million tonnes in March 2020, data from the General Administration of Chinese Customs showed.