SINGAPORE, May 29 (Reuters) - Asia's middle distillates markets turned slightly quiet on window on Thursday, with trading sentiment slightly mixed given fresh supply issues in northeast Asia.
Production outages at two of Japan's refining sites came into focus, with talks of tightened front-month supplies in that region emerging.
Talks of possible cancellations of spot sale cargoes — about 90,000-100,000 metric tons — by one of China's oil majors also surfaced, with a handful of traders attributing it to the weaker export margins.
Meanwhile, spot offers for June-loading jet fuel from China refiners continued - in line with earlier expectations.
The 10ppm sulphur gasoil refining margins GO10SGCKMc1 continued to hover slightly above $16 a barrel.
Cash differentials GO10-SIN-DIF gained slightly to 30 cents per barrel, but spot window activity remained curtailed and in a wide buy-sell gap.
Regrade JETREG10SGMc1 discount remained little changed at around $1.1 a barrel.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS O/AS
- No deals for both fuels
INVENTORIES
- U.S. crude and gasoline stocks fell last week while distillate inventories rose, market sources said, citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Wednesday. API/S
REFINERY NEWS REF/OUT
- Japan's biggest refiner, Eneos Corp 5020.T, experienced an unplanned shutdown of the 145,000 barrels-per-day crude distillation unit at its Sendai refinery in northern Japan, starting May 23, a company spokesperson said on Thursday.
- Japan's Cosmo Oil, a unit of Cosmo Energy Holdings 5021.T, underwent an unplanned shutdown of the 102,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) No.2 crude distillation unit (CDU) at the Chiba refinery, near Tokyo, a company spokesperson said on Thursday.
- Exxon Mobil's XOM.N 250,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Joliet, Illinois brought the catalytic cracker unit back to full capacity, IIR Energy said on Thursday.
NEWS
- Oil prices rose nearly $1 a barrel on Thursday after a U.S. court blocked most of President Donald Trump's tariffs, while the market was watching out for potential new U.S. sanctions curbing Russian crude flows and an OPEC+ decision on hiking output in July. O/R
- Asia's jet fuel exports to the U.S. West Coast are expected to hit at least a one-year high in May, according to shiptracking data and three trade sources, as refinery outages in California boosted prices and import demand.
- Kazakhstan's Energy Minister Erlan Akkenzhenov said on Thursday that an oil price above $70-$75 per barrel is likely to be suitable for all countries.
PRICES
CASH ($/BBL) | ASIA CLOSE | Change | Prev Close | RIC |
Spot Gas Oil 0.5% | 74.96 | 1.73 | 73.23 | GO-SIN |
GO 0.5 Diff | -5.38 | 0.03 | -5.41 | GO-SIN-DIF |
Spot Gas Oil 0.25% | 78.66 | 1.73 | 76.93 | GO25-SIN |
GO 0.25 Diff | -1.68 | 0.03 | -1.71 | GO25-SIN-DIF |
Spot Gas Oil 0.05% | 80.11 | 1.73 | 78.38 | GO005-SIN |
GO 0.05 Diff | -0.23 | 0.03 | -0.26 | GO005-SIN-DIF |
Spot Gas Oil 0.001% | 80.64 | 1.73 | 78.92 | GO10-SIN |
GO 0.001 Diff | 0.30 | 0.03 | 0.27 | GO10-SIN-DIF |
Spot Jet/Kero | 79.40 | 1.51 | 77.89 | JET-SIN |
Jet/Kero Diff | 0.15 | -0.03 | 0.18 | JET-SIN-DIF |
For a list of derivatives prices, including margins, please double click the RICs below. | ||||
Brent M1 | BRENTSGMc1 | |||
Gasoil M1 | GOSGSWMc1 | |||
Gasoil M1/M2 | GOSGSPDMc1 | |||
Gasoil M2 | GOSGSWMc2 | |||
Regrade M1 | JETREGSGMc1 | |||
Regrade M2 | JETREGSGMc2 | |||
Jet M1 | JETSGSWMc1 | |||
Jet M1/M2 | JETSGSPDMc1 | |||
Jet M2 | JETSGSWMc2 | |||
Gasoil 500ppm-Dubai Cracks M1 | GOSGCKMc1 | |||
Gasoil 500ppm-Dubai Cracks M2 | GOSGCKMc2 | |||
Jet Cracks M1 | JETSGCKMc1 | |||
Jet Cracks M2 | JETSGCKMc2 | |||
East-West M1 | LGOAEFSMc1 | |||
East-West M2 | LGOAEFSMc2 | |||
LGO M1 | LGOAMc1 | |||
LGO M1/M2 | LGOASPDMc1 | |||
LGO M2 | LGOAMc2 | |||
Crack LGO-Brent M1 | LGOACKMc1 | |||
Crack LGO-Brent M2 | LGOACKMc2 | |||
(Reporting by Trixie Yap; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)
((trixie.yap@thomsonreuters.com;))