Oil Products Mid-Day Summary: Diesel Crack Ticks Up

US diesel cracks have held relatively steady this week, ticking up again today. This follows an earlier decline seen since February. However, the prompt Gasoil spread is trading in contango suggesting ample supplies.

• US gasoline crack down 0.3$/bbl at 30.8$/bbl
• US ULSD crack up 0.1$/bbl at 24.62$/bbl
• Ukraine launched its latest round of drone attacks in the early hours of Wednesday morning – with reports of Ryazan refinery fires after the attacks.
• 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.
• Indian diesel sales rose by 4.4% to 7.003m tons during April 1-30 compared to the same period last month but declined by 2.3% on the year according to data from state-owned refiners, Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum.
• Austria’s OMV expects refining margins to dip this year to about $8/bbl from $11.7/bbl last year it said in an earnings presentation.
• With the global trend shifting to lower-sulphur fuels, it is only a matter of time before West Africa, Northwest Europe’s favourite location for >1,000ppm sulphur transport fuels starts to disappear according to FGE.