Oil Products Summary at European Close: Diesel Cracks Ease Back

Diesel crack spreads have weakened but remain above levels seen late last week. Diesel cracks are holding most of their gains this month amid tighter supplies from Red Sea diversions, refinery maintenance, and drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure.

• US ULSD crack down -1.6$/bbl at 45.58$/bbl
• US gasoline crack up 0.6$/bbl at 22.07$/bbl
• European oil refiners are increasing crude oil purchases amid high diesel prices and disruptions to Middle Eastern shipments due to Red Sea tensions, boosting physical crude prices according to trading sources.
• Oil processing rates in Russia’s refineries fell by over 151kb/d to the lowest in four months at 5.26mb/d according to Bloomberg sources.
• The Petronor refiner in Bilboa, Spain is halting a reformer for planned maintenance Monday according to a company statement.
• Phillips 66 said on Friday there was a fire at its 60,000 bpd Billings Montana refinery.
• Italy’s 78kbpd API Falconara refinery has fully restarted after planned maintenance that started in early January, a company spokesperson said.
• Lukoil’s Volgograd refinery delayed the return at its damaged primary processing unit until 22 February, from 17 February previously scheduled, following a drone attack earlier this month, Mikhail Turukalov, an oil-products analyst, said in a research note, cited by Bloomberg.
• US weekly (Sun-Sat) gasoline demand declined by 0.7% for the week ending 10 February, GasBuddy data showed.
• The Singapore 95 RON gasoline crack spread has been outperforming all the other global benchmarks amid tight balances and the rest of Q1 remains constructive according to Kpler.
• Global jet fuel demand is set to remain largely flat on the week at 6.1m b/d in the week to Feb. 19, according to BNEF.
• Global airline passenger capacity is set to rise 1.9% in the week commencing Feb. 12 to 106.62m seats, according to OAG.