BP Buys Europe Gasoil Cargo; Petroplus Gets Crude: Oil Products
European gasoil cargo premiums in the Mediterranean advanced as BP Plc bought its second shipment in two days. Jet fuel barge premiums fell in northwest Europe.
Petroplus Holdings AG’s Coryton 220,000 barrel-a-day oil refinery in the U.K. received a seventh crude tanker since the company’s credit lines were frozen in December, allowing operations to continue at reduced rates.
Light Products
Gasoline (MOGEEURB) for immediate loading in Amsterdam-Rotterdam- Antwerp traded at from $1,040 to $1,048 a metric ton, according to a survey of brokers and traders monitoring the Argus Bulletin Board. That’s the highest since Sept. 9 and compares with deals from $1,033 to $1,043 at the end of last week.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Statoil ASA, Koch Industries Inc. and Hess Corp.’s Hetco unit sold Eurobob grade, to which ethanol is added to make finished motor fuel. Cargill Inc., Gunvor Group Ltd. and BP were the buyers.
The fuel’s crack, or premium to Brent, rose to $7.30 a barrel from $6.61 on Feb. 10, according to data from PVM Oil Associates Ltd., a crude and refined products broker in London. That’s the most since Feb. 1.
Naphtha’s discount to Brent was $4.51 a barrel, little changed from the previous session, PVM data showed.
LyondellBasell Industries NV plans to shut a cracker at its Wesseling site in Germany for maintenance. “We have one of our big crackers down in the fall at Wesseling,” Chief Executive Officer James Gallogly said on Feb. 10, according to a transcript of a conference call.
The Wesseling complex has two crackers with a capacity to produce 735,000 metric tons and 305,000 tons respectively of ethylene a year.
Middle Distillates
Jet fuel, which trades at a differential to the gasoil contract on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London, dropped relative to that measure.
Deutsche Lufthansa AG sold on the barge market, where deals were done from $53 to $54 more than March gasoil, according to a similar survey monitoring the Platts pricing window. That compares with Feb. 10 deals at $55.
BP bought a gasoil cargo of about 30,000 tons from Vitol Group for delivery to Castellon in Spain at a premium of $16 to March futures, according to the survey. This is $2 higher than the company’s Feb. 10 trade for delivery to Elefsis in Greece.
Barges of gasoil traded lower at premiums of $3 and $4 a ton to March futures, the survey showed. North Sea Group BV sold to BP and Shell. That compares with trades at $5 more than March gasoil Feb. 10.
Vitol sold a 20,000 ton ultra-low-sulfur diesel cargo, to be loaded on the Admiral, to Gunvor for delivery into Le Havre at about $1 less than the French benchmark diesel price. The company also sold a 30,000 ton cargo, the Seapike, into Lavera to Total SA at about $3 below the Mediterranean benchmark.
BP bought barges of diesel for the ninth day, with trades taking place from $14 to $16.50 a ton more than March gasoil on ICE, the survey showed. Deals were carried out at premiums of $16 and $17 on Feb. 10.
Gasoil for March dropped 0.4 percent, or $4.25, to $993.50 a ton at 5:32 p.m. London time on ICE. The April contract was $7.25 lower than Feb. 10 at $989.50 a ton. March’s premium to the next month fell to $4 a ton from $5.75.
Gasoil’s crack, a measure of refining profitability, dropped to $15.44 a barrel from $16.32 on Feb. 10. Front-month Brent increased 0.7 percent to $118 a barrel on ICE.
Residues
High-sulfur fuel oil was little changed, trading from $688.50 to $689.50 a ton, the survey of Platts showed. That compares with deals Feb. 10 of $687 to $692. The low-sulfur grade traded three times at $721 a ton.
Refineries
Petroplus’s Coryton refinery received a seventh ship, Katja, which had a draft, or sailing depth, of 8.5 meters today compared with 12.7 meters when it was at the terminal on Feb. 10, signaling it unloaded its cargo, according to AISLive ship- tracking data on Bloomberg.
To contact the reporter on this story: Rupert Rowling in London at rrowling@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net
Rate this Page