Gasoline Cracks Steady and Diesel Softer Ahead of EIA Data

Gasoline cracks are holding relatively steady and diesel cracks softer ahead of the updated EIA weekly petroleum inventory data with offline refinery capacity set against weak product demand.

• The EIA weekly petroleum inventory data is due for release this afternoon at 10:30 ET (15:30GMT). EIA data is expected to show a small crude draw while gasoline and distillates stocks are expected to build, and refinery utilisation is forecast to decline according to a Bloomberg survey.
• Gasoline crack spreads have eased back from the highest since September earlier this week with OPIS and GasBuddy seeing a drop in demand last week and with API data showing a large build yesterday. The US front month spread reached a high of over 20.3$/bbl yesterday from a low of 14$b/bbl earlier this month.
• Around 1.7mb/d of crude processing capacity was still offline across the US on Jan 22 after the cold disruption last week which took offline capacity to 1.9mb/d.
• Delek expects upcoming US refinery maintenance season to be among the highest ever, following four years of deferred work due to the pandemic and high profit margins according to Bloomberg.
  • US 321 crack down -0.1$/bbl at 25.05$/bbl
  • US gasoline crack up 0.2$/bbl at 19.19$/bbl
  • US ULSD crack down -0.7$/bbl at 36.75$/bbl
  • EU Gasoline-Brent up 0.5$/bbl at 12.79$/bbl
  • EU Gasoil-Brent down -0.3$/bbl at 26.24$/bbl