Oil World Tour - Week 37
A regional view of physical markets
This week we are going to try something different, a household trademark: a rundown of physical activity in the oil markets by region + a summary of relevant events in products and of course freight.
Lastly, I need to test if there is enough demand for a product like this (you will be my guinea pigs) since I believe there is an information gap between Big Oil and retail, I’m trying to bridge that asymmetry. We’ll see how it goes.
Now with the housekeeping done, let’s dive in
Oil Physical
Middle East
All the action is concentrated in the Gulf, since the reduction of the OSPs Chinese interest sparkled, Allocations for October are healthy, providing more term cargoes to Chinese State-owned refiners, about 3Mnbbl more than September that was average.
The Dubai/Brent spread, that measures the viability between shipping a cargo from the Middle East or crudes from far afield in the Atlantic, was collapsing in the early days of the week, but spot activity in Iraq and UAE were quick to react and pushed down premiums to maintain the status quo. Qatar is tendering some condensate cargos for November, those should clear well since they are naphtha rich yields, and Naphtha in Asia is pretty much the only game in town.
On a weekly basis, exports from the Middle East are somewhat stable
