Oil Products End of Day Summary: Diesel Cracks Plummet

Diesel cracks plummeted on the day to a new 12-month low, driven by EIA data showing four-week average US distillate demand well below seasonal normal levels and down 8.3% on the year.

• US gasoline crack down 1.8$/bbl at 29.33$/bbl
• US ULSD crack down 0.5$/bbl at 24.02$/bbl
• EIA Weekly US Petroleum Summary - w/w change week ending Apr 26: Gasoline stocks +344 vs Exp -1,135, Implied mogas demand +195, Distillate stocks -732 vs Exp +355, Implied dist demand +126
• Ukraine launched its latest round of drone attacks in the early hours of Wednesday morning – with reports of Ryazan refinery fires after the attacks.
• A stagnant manufacturing sector is likely to keep the pressure on diesel markets, which are under pressure with the prompt structure in contango.
• Shandong refiners in China are pivoting towards Russian fuel oil as a feedstock as competition for Russian Urals rises from Indian refiners and Chinese oil majors.
• Marathon Petroleum is positioned to run near full utilisation this summer with Q2 rates for its refineries projected to average 94%, according to the CEO in the Q1 earnings call.
• With the global trend shifting to lower-sulphur fuels, it is only a matter of time before WAF, NWE’s favourite location for >1,000ppm sulphur transport fuels starts to disappear: FGE.
• Gasoline shortages persisted in Nigeria’s main cities April 30, leading to a sharp increase in prices, according to Reuters.
• Oil product stocks in Fujairah stood at 20.796m bbl as of April 29, down 844k bbl, or 3.9% on the week, according to FedCom data cited by Platts.