RTRS:Asia Distillates-Gasoil premiums down on rise in crude
SINGAPORE, July 13 (Reuters) - Asian gasoil premiums fell for the first time in nearly two
weeks as crude oil prices rose and as higher prices started to curb demand, traders said on
Friday.
The cash premiums for the benchmark 0.5 percent sulphur fell 10 cents to 60 cents a barrel
above Singapore quotes, while gasoil margins fell 29 cents to $17.04 a barrel above Dubai crude,
Reuters data showed.
Persistently high premiums, which have risen about 60 cents a barrel since the start of
July, have started to dampen demand in the region, traders said.
"I think it's never going to sustain that kind of premium for very long ... it's way too
expensive for anyone to consume," one of them said.
High diesel premiums offered into a recent tender by Thailand's Bangchak Petroleum led the
company to secure domestic barrels instead, traders said.
The company is planning to restart on Saturday a 45,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) crude
distillation unit that was shut down after a fire at its refinery last week.
A second 80,000 bpd unit damaged by the fire is expected to be replaced by October, which
means that Bangchak plans to import 50 million litres of oil products per month. It will also
seek to buy from local sources such as Thai Oil Pcl and IRPC Pcl to help
offset a shortfall.
In jet fuel, a recent sell tender by Taiwan's Formosa for a cargo loading in August was
likely to have been procured by a Singapore trader to sell to Thailand's PTT, a Singapore-based
trader said. But this could not be confirmed.
China Aviation Oil (CAO), Asia's top jet fuel buyer, has leased oil storage space
in Singapore in the first half of the year to store middle distillates, a company spokeswoman
said.
Details on the size of the storage or from whom it was leased were not known.
A Singapore-based trader said capacity was likely to be about 300,000 barrels, similar to
the size CAO previously leased at Oiltanking's facility in Singapore, a storage space it later
released.
Neither this figure nor its previous lease in Singapore could immediately be confirmed.
* TENDERS: No new tenders issued.
* CASH DEALS: One jet deal, one gasoil trade.
- Shell bought 100,000 barrels of jet fuel for loading over July 28-August 1 from BP at a
premium of 10 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes.
- Hin Leong sold 250,000 barrels of 0.25 percent sulphur gasoil for July 28-August 1 loading
to Unipec at a premium of $1.90 a barrel over Singapore quotes.
MID-DISTILLATES
CASH ($/T) ASIA CLOSE Change % Change Prev RIC
Close
Spot Gas Oil 0.5% 115.70 0.96 0.84 114.74 GO-SIN
GO 0.5 Diff 0.60 -0.10 -14.29 0.70 GO-SIN-DIF
Spot Gas Oil 0.25% 117.10 1.01 0.87 116.09 GO25-SIN
GO 0.25 Diff 2.00 0.00 0.00 2.00 GO25-SIN-DIF
Spot Gas Oil 0.05% 118.20 1.06 0.90 117.14 GO005-SIN
GO 0.05 Diff 3.10 0.00 0.00 3.10 GO005-SIN-DIF
Spot Gas Oil 119.50 1.01 0.85 118.49 GO10-SIN
0.001%
GO 0.001 Diff 4.40 -0.05 -1.12 4.45 GO10-SIN-DIF
Spot Jet/Kero 116.06 1.29 1.12 114.77 JET-SIN
Jet/Kero Diff 0.22 0.02 10.00 0.20 JET-SIN-DIF
