European and African bunker prices have mostly moved up with Brent, and Rotterdam’s VLSFO price has gained against several other ports.
Changes on the day to 08.00 GMT today:
- VLSFO prices up in Rotterdam ($8/mt), and down in Durban ($4/mt) and Gibraltar ($2/mt)
- LSMGO prices up in Durban ($8/mt) and Rotterdam ($3/mt), and steady in Gibraltar
- HSFO prices up in Gibraltar ($6/mt) and Rotterdam ($3/mt)
Rotterdam’s VLSFO price keeps rising against other ports.
Its discount to Gibraltar has shrunk from $26/mt on Friday, to just $9/mt now.
It was at a slight discount to Skaw for much of last week, but has now flipped to a $4/mt premium.
St. Petersburg and Ust-Luga have been pricing VLSFO at wider and wider discounts to other European ports since late August. Pipeline access to a VLSFO-producing Russian refinery and more ample volumes in the bunker market has contributed to weigh on prices.
St. Petersburg’s VLSFO discount to Rotterdam has gone up from around $40/mt last week, to $60/mt.
Bunker congestion has been cleared in Gibraltar today, with no vessels waiting for deliveries, port agent MH Bland says. Bunkering locations in the Gibraltar Strait, Canary Islands and Malta have calm weather forecast for the next week.
Brent
Front-month ICE Brent crude has come up by $0.73/bbl in the day to 08.00 GMT, when it stood at $74.15/bbl.
Brent has made it over $74/bbl for the first time since early August and partly been propped up by persistently shut in offshore oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.
About 8% of platforms and 9% of rigs have yet to be manned after being evacuated in the lead-up to Hurricane Ida two weeks ago. But production has gradually come back, with the share of shut in production in the Gulf coming down from 95% in the immediate wake of Ida, to 44% now, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
Just as US offshore platforms and rigs are coming back online after Hurricane Ida, tropical storm Nicholas prompted oil companies, including Shell, to evacuate platforms again.
Nicholas strengthened into a hurricane by the time it made landfall on the Texan coast last night, the National Hurricane Center said. Bunkering and some port operations and outbound sailings have been halted in Corpus Christi and ports in the Houston area in Hurricane Nicholas’ path.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has revised its third-quarter global demand forecast down by 200,000 b/d, but thinks demand will pick up as wider vaccine rollouts will slow the spread of the Delta Covid-19 variant.
“Global oil demand is estimated to have declined for three straight months due to a resurgence of Covid-19 cases in Asia,” the IEA said in its latest report today.
Already signs are emerging of Covid cases abating with demand now expected to rebound by a sharp 1.6 mb/d in October, and continuing to grow until end-year.”