Oil Products Summary at European Close: Gasoline Crack Drops

Gasoline cracks have softened, reversing some moderate gains earlier in the day. The gasoline complex continues to remain weak as demand continues to hover below the four-week average.

• US gasoline crack down -0.3$/bbl at 10.69$/bbl
• RBOB NOV 23 down -3.2% at 2.25$/gal
• Gasoil NOV 23 down -3.7% at 886.25$/mt
• US ULSD crack down -0.1$/bbl at 40.7$/bbl.
• European gasoline arrivals in the US were unchanged on the week to 19 Oct at the four-week low of 174kb/d, according to bills of lading and ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.
• Weaker than normal demand following the summer driving season and building gasoline stocks had been weighing on gasoline prices since mid-August. Supplies remain steady as refining utilisation is boosted by healthy refining margins driven by robust diesel cracks although is currently limited by refinery maintenance.
• EIA data implied demand has seen a slight recovery in recent weeks although US gasoline demand fell 1.8% last week to 8.7mb/d and 0.2% below the four-week average according to GasBuddy.
• Marathon Petroleum’s 593kbpd Galveston Bay refinery in Texas is expected to undergo maintenance at least until mid-November, people familiar with the plant operations said, cited by Reuters.
• Oman’s new 230kbpd Duqm refinery is ramping up production with the refinery utilization close to 60% as of October according to Petro Logistics.
• Independent refineries in China’s Shandong region imported 2.39m mt of crude oil in the week to Oct. 22, according to OilChem.