Oil Products Summary at European Close: Cracks Slide

Cracks have relinquished earlier gains and have tracked crude’s decline during the afternoon to be lower on the day. However, cracks have maintained most of the gains made yesterday after larger inventory draws than anticipated in the EIA data.

• US gasoline crack down -0.1$/bbl at 15.69$/bbl
• US ULSD crack down -1$/bbl at 42.81$/bbl
• Chinese refiners may be setting up to increase imports of high-sulphur residues to supplant secondary unit runs, similar to last year as crude import quotas dry up according to Kpler.
• ARA oil product stockpiles according to Insights Global: Inventory type, latest level, weekly change (all in thousand metric tons): Gasoline: 1,382, +48, Naphtha: 142, -22, Gasoil: 1,684, -39, Fuel Oil: 1,268, +137, Jet Fuel: 700, -25
• Singapore’s Middle Distillate Stocks surged to a two-year high of 10.42m bbl, amid falling fuel exports from the hub.
• (KIPIC) has sufficient oil product inventories to meet obligations with foreign customers despite the recent shutdown of its 615kbd Al Zour refinery its CEO Walid al-Badr told Reuters Thursday. A fire broke out at the refinery earlier Thursday.
• Diesel sales reported by the top-three Indian state refiners Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum fell 12% y/y in the first half of November to 3.1m tons, according to Bloomberg based on company data.
• The outlook for diesel cracks remains above seasonal norms, according to Platts, as the region faces its first winter without Russian volumes.
• German winter diesel on offer in ARA has been shrinking and prompt delivery premiums have been rising according to Argus, coinciding with German refinery disruption.