Americas bunker prices have inched down with Brent, and there are signs of better prompt bunker availability in Panama.
Changes on the day to 08.30 CST (14.30 GMT) today:
- VLSFO prices down in Zona Comun ($26/mt), Los Angeles ($4/mt), Houston and New York ($2/mt) and Balboa ($1/mt)
- LSMGO prices up in Balboa ($2/mt), and down in Houston and New York ($8/mt), Los Angeles ($2/mt) and Zona Comun ($1/mt)
- HSFO380 prices down in Houston ($2/mt), New York, Los Angeles and Balboa ($1/mt)
VLSFO and LSMGO supplies seem more readily available in Balboa now, with several suppliers offering for prompt dates, and in narrower $5-10/mt price ranges between them for the grades.
When supplies ran low towards the end of October, offer prices diverged considerably more and the port’s benchmark prices rose to wide premiums over regional bunkering hubs like Houston.
High demand put pressure on Balboa’s fuel stocks and bunker barge schedules through October. The port’s suppliers brough two barges back into operation last month.
Balboa’s VLSFO price has now dipped $15/mt below Houston’s, and its LSMGO price is just $3/mt above Houston’s.
Calmer weather at the Zona Comun anchorage has allowed bunkering to resume. Suppliers are carrying out deliveries today and the weather forecast looks good for bunkering until Friday afternoon local time.
Zona Comun’s VLSFO price has dropped after spiking earlier this week. Its premiums over nearby Rio Grande and Paranagua have shrunk from around $30/mt yesterday, to $9-11/mt today.
Brent
Front-month ICE Brent has been rangebound, only shedding $0.14/bbl on the day to 08.30 CST (14.30 GMT), when it stood at $81.88/bbl.
US crude inventories fell 2.10 million bbls lower in the week to 12 November, according to the latest official figures from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Analysts polled by Reuters and Oilprice.com had expected stock builds of 1.4-1.55 million bbls, but Brent was still trading down towards $81/bbl after the EIA report came out today.
Gasoline and distillate stocks were slightly drawn, bringing gasoline levels to four-year lows and distillates to their lowest since March 2020. US gasoline prices have spiked amid low domestic inventories and high crude benchmark values.
The market ponders whether US President Biden will release crude from the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) to rein in the recent price rally.
“The hesitation appears to be because the market outlook is more comfortable in 2022, while an SPR release would also only offer short-term relief to the market,” says ING commodity strategists Warren Patterson and Wenyu Yao.
But if emergency US crude is released, it might not make much of an impact on domestic US gasoline prices.
“It seems the energy market is convinced that even if the US resorts to tapping the strategic petroleum reserve, the benefits would be minimal and yield little benefit to the US consumer,” says OANDA analyst Ed Moya.