SINGAPORE, April 5 (Reuters) - Asian gasoil and jet fuel
margins fell on Friday as the east-west spread turned positive,
reducing profits for shipment of cargoes to Europe from Asia,
industry sources said.
The May gasoil crack fell 15 cents to $17.28 a barrel above
Dubai crude while the jet fuel margin slipped five cents to
$17.33 a barrel, Reuters data showed.
The east-west spread flipped into a premium of about $2 to
$4 a tonne, which made Asian barrels more expensive to buy than
European barrels. Arbitrage is usually workable when the
east-west spread slips to a discount of about $10 and below,
traders said.
In the Singapore trading period, oil major BP bought 600,000
barrels of gasoil, which helped increase liquidity in the
physical market.
Unipec continued to be a major seller, with some of its
cargoes likely to be from excess barrels being shipped out of
China due to added capacity, traders said.
Liquidity also picked up in the derivatives market with BP
and Vitol being some of the main companies taking large paper
positions, industry sources said.
The trading volumes are not known, but they have been
increasing over the past few weeks, one of the sources said,
though the reason was not immediately clear.
Freight rates have also slowed after Easter with clean
tanker rates for refined petroleum products on top export routes
becoming softer, with slower business taking its toll on the
long-range market.
Analysts said reduced refinery capacity in the Atlantic
Basin could boost long-haul demand for the wider products tanker
sector in coming years.
"The product -- gasoline and diesel -- tanker sector will
fare better than crude because it is approaching a
demand-and-supply equilibrium already this year and given that
this may help to ease the built-up overcapacity in the product
tanker fleet and, so, boost charter rates," Standard & Poor's
said in a report.
"Just how resilient this likely equilibrium is, will depend
on the pace of the new ship orders, which have accelerated in
the past months."
Rising tension in North Asia has not pushed up freight rates
and hence, middle distillates supply from South Korean refiners
are still normal, traders said.
"Usually when something happens...the vessels are the first
ones to react. They refuse to (ply) certain routes and so
freight rates will go up," a North Asian trader said.
Still, traders are keeping an eye on the situation for a
potential impact on oil prices, they added.
* TENDERS: No new tenders issued.
* SINGAPORE CASH DEALS: Five gasoil deals, one jet fuel
trade.
- BP bought 150,000 barrels of 500 ppm sulphur gasoil for
April 20 to 24 loading from Unipec at a discount of 10 cents a
barrel to the average of April 18 to 24 Singapore quotes.
- BP bought 150,000 barrels of 500 ppm sulphur gasoil for
April 25 to 29 loading from Unipec at parity to the average of
April 24 to 30 Singapore quotes.
- Unipec sold 150,000 barrels of 500 ppm sulphur gasoil for
April 20 to 24 loading to BP at a premium of 10 cents a barrel
to the average of April 5 to 15 Singapore quotes.
- P66 sold 150,000 barrels of 10 ppm sulphur diesel to BP at
a premium of $1.70 a barrel to the average of April 5 to 15
Singapore quotes.
- Vitol bought 150,000 barrels of 500 ppm sulphur gasoil for
April 26 to 30 loading from Glencore at a discount of 10 cents a
barrel to Singapore quotes.
- Hin Leong bought 100,000 barrels of jet fuel for April 25
to 29 loading from Morgan Stanley at $119.60 a barrel.
MID-DISTILLATES
CASH ($/T) ASIA CLOSE Change % Change Prev RIC
Close
Spot Gas Oil 0.5% 117.41 -0.95 -0.80 118.36 (GO-SIN)
GO 0.5 Diff -2.95 0.05 -1.67 -3.00 (GO-SIN-DIF)
Spot Gas Oil 0.25% 118.71 -0.95 -0.79 119.66 (GO25-SIN)
GO 0.25 Diff -1.65 0.05 -2.94 -1.70 (GO25-SIN-DIF)
Spot Gas Oil 0.05% 120.30 -0.97 -0.80 121.27
GO 0.05 Diff -0.06 0.03 -33.33 -0.09
Spot Gas Oil 122.00 -0.96 -0.78 122.96
0.001%
GO 0.001 Diff 1.64 0.04 2.50 1.60
Spot Jet/Kero 119.83 -1.00 -0.83 120.83 (JET-SIN)
Jet/Kero Diff -0.29 -0.03 11.54 -0.26 (JET-SIN-DIF)
SWAPS ($/T) ASIA CLOSE Change % Change Prev PM (1130 GMT)
(0830 GMT) Close
Brent M1 106.42 -1.08 -1.00 107.50
Gasoil M1 120.30 -0.98 -0.81 121.28
Gasoil M1/M2 -0.15 0.08 -34.78 -0.23
Gasoil M2 120.45 -1.06 -0.87 121.51
Regrade M1 -0.40 -0.02 5.26 -0.38
Regrade M2 0.05 0.10 -200.00 -0.05
Jet M1 119.90 -1.00 -0.83 120.90
Jet M1/M2 -0.60 -0.04 7.14 -0.56
Jet M2 120.50 -0.96 -0.79 121.46
Gasoil 17.28 -0.15 -0.86 17.43
500ppm-Dubai
Cracks M1
Gasoil 17.77 -0.24 -1.33 18.01
500ppm-Dubai
Cracks M2
Jet Cracks M1 17.33 -0.05 -0.29 17.38
Jet Cracks M2 17.86 -0.18 -1.00 18.04
East-West M1 3.73 4.69 -488.54 -0.96
East-West M2 0.85 3.60 -130.91 -2.75
LGO M1 892.50 -12.00 -1.33 904.50
LGO M1/M2 -4.00 -0.50 14.29 -3.50
LGO M2 896.50 -11.50 -1.27 908.00
Crack LGO-Brent M1 13.92 -0.46 -3.20 14.38
Crack LGO-Brent M2 14.46 -0.38 -2.56 14.84
(Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan; Editing by Clarence
Fernandez)
