Mid-Day Oil Summary: Crude Tracks Weekly Net Gain

Crude markets are holding onto earlier gains, with front month Brent crude currently tracking a 2.5% weekly net increase. Oil markets rallied late yesterday as a reversal downwards in US dollar offered support and despite weaker than expected US GDP numbers putting pressure on the oil demand outlook.

• Brent JUN 24 up 0.5% at 89.47$/bbl
• WTI JUN 24 up 0.6% at 84.04$/bbl
• Gasoil MAY 24 up 2.1% at 789.5$/mt
• South Korea for the second straight month reduced Saudi Arabian crude oil imports and boosted US cargoes instead amid better economics, sources told S&P Commodity Insights.
• TankerTrackers has flagged a record level of 8 pairs of ships performing ship-to-ship transfers totalling 16mn bbls of Iranian oil today in the Riau archipelago in the South China Sea – all bound for China.
• A vessel owned by the sanctioned Sovcomflot, carrying Russian Urals crude, is heading toward India, after the country’s refiners said last month, they halt imports of oil on Sovcomflot tankers, Bloomberg ship tracking showed.
• Russian gasoline and diesel production has stabilised in April, the Russian government said on Thursday, cited by Reuters.
• China’s commercial gasoline stockpiles increased by 5.5% week on week to 11.9mn tons as of 25 April, the highest level since 8 February according to OilChem.
• Almost 1.2mbd of diesel/gasoil is expected to arrive into the Atlantic Basin this month from the East of Suez, a strong 300kbd m/m increase according to Vortexa.
• Global gasoil balances will swing from “a 380k b/d deficit in April to a peak 1.3m b/d surplus in July,” according to Kpler forecasts.
• The Delek Big Spring refinery in Texas reported an equipment malfunction on Thursday according to a TCEQ filing, cited by Reuters.
• Marathon’s 291kbpd Catlettsburg refinery in northeastern Kentucky is restarting all units after a power loss on 23 April, sources told Bloomberg.
• Diesel cracks yesterday resumed the declining trend amid poorer US economic signals, coupled with weaker demand in recent EIA data. A drop in diesel returns is prompting some refiners in Asia to make modest reduction in processing rates, according to Bloomberg.
  • US gasoline crack down 0$/bbl at 31.42$/bbl
  • US ULSD crack up 0.3$/bbl at 24.4$/bbl