SINGAPORE- Asian refining margins for 10 ppm gasoil rose on Thursday, supported by shrinking inventories and firm demand.
Refining margins, also known as cracks, for 10 ppm gasoil climbed to $11.37 a barrel over Dubai crude during Asian trading hours, up from $11.04 in the previous session, Refinitiv data on Eikon showed.
The front-month crack hit a two-month low of $11 a barrel on Monday, the data showed, on concerns that rising coronavirus cases in Europe would blunt a demand recovery.
Oil prices, meanwhile, slipped as investors waiting to see how producers respond to the emergency crude release by major consuming countries to cool the market.
INVENTORIES
Singapore's middle distillate inventories fell 8% to a more than three-year low of 8.45 million barrels in the week to Nov. 24, according to Enterprise Singapore data.
Weekly Singapore middle distillate inventories have averaged 12.27 million barrels this year, compared with an average of 13.9 million barrels in 2020, Reuters calculations showed.
This week's stocks were 45% lower than a year earlier.
U.S. distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 2.7 million barrels last week, market sources said on Wednesday, citing American Petroleum Institute figures.
In the Middle East, middle-distillate inventories in the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone dropped for a second week, falling 21% to a seven-week low of 2.82 million barrels in the week ended Nov. 22, data via S&P Global Platts showed.
In the United States, distillate stocks fell by 1.5 million barrels, according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday, against a 1 million barrel drop forecast in an extended Reuters poll.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
One gasoil deal, none on jet fuel.
OTHER NEWS
- China, the world's largest crude importer, was non-committal about whether it will release oil from its reserves as requested by Washington, while OPEC sources said the U.S. action has not made the producer group change course.
- Global oil major Royal Dutch Shell could build a biofuels plant in Singapore to meet the region's rising demand for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), the head of its downstream business said on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Roslan Khasawneh Editing by David Goodman ) ((roslan.khasawneh@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: roslan.khasawneh.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
