Gasoline and Diesel Spreads Steady Despite Crude Volatility

Gasoline and diesel crack spreads remain largely unchanged on the day despite the decline and volatility in crude futures due to wider economic market concerns.

• The gasoline market eased back slightly last week on future demand concerns but spreads are still supported by the US demand recovery seen in the last couple of months. GasBuddy data showed a slight rise this week and is up from 7.54mbpd in late December to 8.39mbpd. EIA data last week showed a showed a dip on the week but the four week average held just slightly up from the previous week at 8.71mbpd and still near the five year average.
• Low gasoline inventory levels in US, a strong US refinery maintenance season and the switch to summer grade gasoline have all added to the price support.
• Diesel spreads are recovering from a decline early last week with support from an expected drop in diesel shipments from Asia due to recovering domestic demand in China.
• Loadings of clean fuels from Asia to the Americas for March rose by 95k tons from the previous week to 400k tons according to Bloomberg data.
  • Brent MAY 23 down -1.3% at 81.72$/bbl
  • WTI APR 23 down -1.4% at 75.62$/bbl
  • US 321 crack down -0.1$/bbl at 36.14$/bbl
  • US gasoline crack down -0.1$/bbl at 34.2$/bbl
  • US ULSD crack down -0.1$/bbl at 40.03$/bbl
  • EU Gasoline-Brent down -0.4$/bbl at 16.93$/bbl
  • EU Gasoil-Brent up 0.3$/bbl at 24.21$/bbl