Asia Distillates: Gasoil margins post second straight weekly gains

SINGAPORE: Asia’s 10-ppm sulphur gasoil margins were little changed on Friday, amid a dearth of trades at the physical window, although still posting their second consecutive weekly gains.

Refining margins for 10ppm sulphur gasoil closed trading at $15.56 a barrel, marginally lower than the previous session’s close of $15.57 a barrel.

For the week, however, the margins rose by 7.3%, extending a 25.2% gain seen last week. Jet fuel refining margins weakened to $14.86 a barrel, compared to the previous session’s close of $15.10 a barrel.

Cash differentials for 10ppm sulphur gasoil were up slightly at minus 33 cents a barrel, compared with minus 35 cents a barrel in the previous session.

Asia’s regrade value was at minus 70 cents by the end of the trading session, compared with the previous session’s close of minus 47 cents.

Asian gasoil exports for May are expected to stay low for a second straight month, amid shrinking gasoil margins in the face of ongoing refinery maintenances across Northeast Asia, including China, South Korea and Japan, Refinitiv Oil Research said in a weekly report.

Gasoil stocks held in independent storage in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage area rose by more than 6% at about 2.49 million tonnes in the week to Thursday, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

Oil prices slipped on Friday, heading for a fourth weekly decline, as renewed economic concerns in the United States and China revived concern about fuel demand growth in the world’s two largest oil consumers.

OPEC’s global oil demand forecast for 2023 was held steady for a third month on Thursday, with the producer group citing the potential Chinese growth to be offset by downside economic risks elsewhere such as the US debt ceiling.