Oil Products Summary at European Close: Gasoline Crack Rises

Gasoline cracks have ticked up on the day, while diesel cracks continue their ongoing downward trajectory.

• EU Gasoline-Brent up 0.9$/bbl at 16.17$/bbl
• EU Gasoil-Brent down -0.4$/bbl at 25.85$/bbl
• The Middle East conflict and attacks on shipping in the Red Sea have resulted in increased shipping costs and supported refining margins. US diesel cracks however continue to pull back amid demand concern, easing US refining outages from the high in Jan and with a ramp up in Middle East refining capacity.
• US PADD 3 clean product exports remain strong despite heavy reported maintenance levels according to Vortexa, posting an 11% increase over the first 20 days of Feb vs the seasonal average.
• European oil refinery output fell 1.2% year on year in January to 9.94mb/d according to Euroilstock data but remained broadly in line with December levels.
• US refiners see modest US demand gains and relatively tight markets in the US for 2024 despite new refining capacity later in the year according to Bloomberg.
• Oil refiner HF Sinclair expects a constrained environment for the rest of 2024 after Q4 profits beat estimates on better-than-expected refining margins and throughput.
• TotalEnergies has shut the 220kbpd CDU at the Donges refinery in France earlier this week according to WoodMac.
• Russia’s diesel production was 1.594m mt in the seven days to Feb. 18, down 5.2% on the week, according to Rosstat.
• Oil product stockpiles at the UAE’s port of Fujairah declined by 13% in the week ending 19 February to 16.648mn barrels, the largest weekly drop in seven months, according to data from the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone.