Good morning all. Brent futures for October, which expire on Friday, rose 13 cents, or, 0.3% to $45.77 a barrel by 5:40 am GMT. The more active November Brent contract was up 10 cents at $46.26 per barrel. WTI futures rose 1 cent to $43.40 a barrel.
Hurricane Laura, a Category 4 storm, continued to strengthen and is expected to make landfall along the Texas-Louisiana border on August 27. Several major refineries, totalling roughly 2.34 million b/d of capacity, were closing their plants, including the largest refinery in the US, Motiva’s Port Arthur Refinery with a 630,000 b/d refining capacity.
Yet, while the storm pushed up Brent October contract due to the potential supply risk, the hurricane is not expected to largely affect supplies because oil and product inventories remain high due to the coronavirus pandemic’s hit to fuel demand.
US commercial crude inventories fell 4.69 million barrels at 507.76 million barrels for the week ending on August 21, showed data released on August 26 by the US Energy Information Administration. This was the fifth consecutive week of drawdown in supplies, largely due to a 60% surge in weekly exports from the week prior to a 15-week high of 3.36 million b/d.
Gasoline inventories also declined 4.58 million barrels at 239.8 million barrels while total product supplied, a proxy for demand, jumped 2.46 million b/d at 19.62 million b/d.
Nevertheless, rising COVID-19 cases worldwide, especially a jump in infection cases in Europe, continue to weigh down heavily on market sentiments. The global COVID-19 case count has exceeded 24 million and daily infections have started edging upward from a one-week low of 216,894 cases on August 23 to 241,961 cases on August 25, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
MARKETS NEWS:
* Idled Trucks Have Indian Fuel Demand Headed for Five-Year Low
* Equinor to Cut Staff by 20% in U.S. to Weather Oil Price Slump
* Atlantic Basin Oil Exports Set to Tighten in Sept. as Urals Drop
* U.S. East Coast Gasoline Inventories Dropped by Most Since 2017
* Transatlantic Gasoline Vessels Gain; Clarkson Sees Tightness
* Nigeria to Boost Exports of Brass Crude to 109K B/d in October
* Colombia Crude Output Rose 0.7% m/m to 734,987 B/D in July
* Italy Jet Fuel Demand Fell 70% Y/y in July; Improvement vs June
* EUROPE-AMERICAS FUEL: Bookings Pick Up; August Flows to Drop
HURRICANE LAURA:
* Laura Threatens U.S. Gulf Coast With ‘Unsurvivable’ Storm Surge
* Tracking Hurricane Laura as It Threatens to Slam U.S. Gulf Coast
* U.S. EPA Braces for Waiver Requests to Address Fuel Shortages
* Idled Texas Refineries Prepare for Hurricane Laura’s Landfall
* Dozens of Oil Tankers Clustered in Western Gulf Before Laura
* Laura’s Hit to Refining May Play Out Over Weeks: Morgan Stanley
* ‘Wait and See’ Approach for Refiners Amid Storm: Wells Fargo
* U.S. Crude Imports, Exports Weaken Ahead of Laura: ClipperData
OTHER NEWS:
* Ex-Boss of Top India Refiner Joins Ambani’s Oil-to-Chemical Unit
* Saudi Aramco Appoints New CEO for $500 Million Investment Arm
* China’s Commodity Heavyweights to Chart Course Out of Pandemic
* Petrobras Board Approves Sale of Company Stake in Fuel Unit
* Bonaire Orders PDVSA to Empty Tanks On Safety Concerns
PHYSICAL CRUDE NEWS:
* ASIA: FPCC Seeks More Low-Sulfur Oil; Refining Shake-Up
* LATAM: Petrobras Refineries Top Pre-Lockdown; BOPEC Order
* US/CANADA: Dozens of Oil Ships Clustered in Western Gulf
* NSEA: Shell Sells WTI Midland; Equinor Offers Oseberg
* MED: Sept. Urals Loadings to Dip; Surgut, Tupras Tenders
* WAF: Angola to Cut Exports in October; Brass Exports Gain
OIL PRODUCT NEWS:
* U.S.: Hurricane Laura Grows Into Category 4 Storm
* EUROPE OIL PRODUCTS: ICE Gasoil Crack Drops; Feyzin Activity
* ASIA: Asian Plastics Boom; India Refinery Runs Drop
ECONOMIC EVENTS: (Times are London. )
* Singapore onshore oil-product stockpile weekly data
* Insights Global weekly report on European refined product inventories in ARA region
ANALYST COLUMNS:
* Oil Tankers Used for Floating Storage Down by a Third: Vortexa
OTHER FINANCIAL MARKETS:
* Global Stock Rally Stalls in Asia; Bonds Climb: Markets Wrap
Singapore 380 INDIC
Sep20 270.00 / 272.00
Oct20 269.00 / 271.00
Nov20 269.00 / 271.00
Dec20 269.25 / 271.25
Jan21 270.75 / 272.75
Feb21 272.50 / 274.50
Q4-20 269.00 / 271.00
Q1-21 272.50 / 274.50
Q2-21 277.25 / 279.25
Q3-21 280.75 / 283.75
CAL21 272.25 / 278.25
Rotterdam 3.5% INDIC
Sep20 258.25 / 260.25
Oct20 254.75 / 256.75
Nov20 252.75 / 254.75
Dec20 252.25 / 254.25
Jan21 253.75 / 255.75
Feb21 255.00 / 257.00
Q4-20 253.25 / 255.25
Q1-21 255.00 / 257.00
Q2-21 258.75 / 260.75
Q3-21 261.25 / 264.25
CAL21 254.50 / 260.50
Singapore VLSFO 0.5% INDIC
Sep20 329.25 / 334.25
Oct20 331.75 / 336.75
Nov20 334.25 / 339.25
Dec20 336.75 / 341.75
Jan21 340.25 / 345.25
Feb21 343.25 / 348.25
Q4-20 334.25 / 339.25
Q1-21 343.00 / 348.00
Q2-21 350.75 / 356.75
Q3-21 357.25 / 363.25
CAL21 353.25 / 359.25
Rott VLSFO 0.5% INDIC
Sep20 307.25 / 312.25
Oct20 310.25 / 315.25
Nov20 313.25 / 318.25
Dec20 316.25 / 321.25
Jan21 320.00 / 325.00
Feb21 323.25 / 328.25
Q4-20 313.25 / 318.25
Q1-21 323.00 / 328.00
Q2-21 330.75 / 336.75
Q3-21 337.25 / 343.25
CAL21 333.25 / 339.25
Sing 10ppm GO INDIC
Sep20 49.79 / 49.93
Oct20 50.18 / 50.38
Nov20 50.57 / 50.77
Dec20 51.01 / 51.21
Jan21 51.56 / 51.76
Feb21 52.10 / 52.30
Q4-20 50.60 / 50.80
Q1-21 52.10 / 52.30
Q2-21 53.62 / 53.82
Q3-21 54.91 / 55.11
CAL21 53.97 / 54.37
ICE Gasoil 10ppm INDIC
Sep20 375.19 / 377.19
Oct20 380.24 / 382.24
Nov20 384.22 / 386.22
Dec20 388.33 / 390.33
Jan21 392.89 / 394.89
Feb21 397.48 / 399.48
Q4-20 384.25 / 386.25
Q1-21 397.14 / 399.14
Q2-21 406.27 / 408.27
Q3-21 417.54 / 419.54
CAL21 411.02 / 413.02
Rott Hi5 Sing Hi5
Sep20 51.74 60.99
Oct20 58.24 64.49
Nov20 63.24 66.99
Dec20 66.74 69.24
Jan21 68.99 71.24
Feb21 70.99 72.49
Q4-20 62.75 66.90
Q1-21 70.91 72.41
Q2-21 77.83 76.91
Q3-21 80.74 79.49
CAL21 79.00 80.00