Oil Products Summary at European Close: Diesel Cracks Jump

US diesel cracks have risen strongly during European hours, after spreads fell to their lowest levels since July. Upside remains limited by robust US inventories.

• US gasoline crack down -0.3$/bbl at 14.93$/bbl
• US ULSD crack up 1.1$/bbl at 38.35$/bbl
• US gasoline demand reaches the second lowest weekly level since early 2023, falling again last week by 1.5% and was 1.0% below the average of the last four weeks according to GasBuddy data.
• Euroilstock: Europe 16 nations oil inventories fell by 4mn barrels to 1,008mn barrels in November. October data has been revised down by 8mn barrels. Crude -6mb to 427mb, Gasoline +1mb 107mb, Middle distillate -1mb to 389mb, Fuel oil unchanged +2mb to 57mb, Naphtha unchanged at 28mb.
• Russian diesel flows to Brazil are expected to remain steadily strong in early 2024, as Brazilian buyers rely on cheap imports due to the latest domestic diesel price adjustment from Petrobras, according to market sources, cited by Platts.
• Exxon Mobil plans to shut down a chemical unit Monday at its Port Jerome-Gravenchon refining and petchem complex, according to a community alert.
• Motiva’s Port Arthur Texas refinery plans to shut its 345k bpd VPS-5 crude unit the first week of January and begin maintenance on it January 8 according to Bloomberg sources.
• Global air passenger capacity is set to rise 1.3% in the week commencing Dec. 11 to 104.7m seats, according to OAG.
• A record number of 7.5mn people are expected to fly during 23 December and 1 January 2024, marking the busiest year-end flight travel season since at least 2000, AAA said.