Mid-Day Oil Products Summary: Diesel Regains Ground

Diesel crack spreads have regained ground this week amid ongoing tight supply concerns ahead of winter and despite the easing of the Russian export ban. The front month US spread remains high having risen from just over 37.4$/bbl on 6 Oct to 45.53$/bbl although still below the peak of 57.1$/bbl seen in August.

• US ULSD crack up 1.1$/bbl at 45.5$/bbl
• US gasoline crack down -0.3$/bbl at 7.79$/bbl
• ICE Gasoil futures open interest has fallen so far in October from 0.725m on 26 Sep to 0.647m.
• US gasoline, diesel and jet fuel demand has or is about to reach its peak according to US refiner Phillips 66 and refineries are expected to change output slates in response.
• China’s Sinopec has applied to the government to swap some marine fuel export quota to export more distillates and gasoline, according to Reuters sources.
• Run rates at China’s state-owned refineries fell to 80.3% capacity in the week to Oct. 12, according to OilChem.
• Formosa Petrochemical Corp. is considering reducing overall refinery processing rates by 5% due to weak gasoline margins according to Bloomberg citing spokesperson Lin Keh Yen.
• OPEC+ countries pushed out higher oil product supplies in September, at the same time as they have been curtailing crude supplies according to Vortexa.