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Commentary

Brent closed up $0.41 last night to $62.86 and WTI closed at $57.62 up $0.15. I want to talk about hope. Last week the market had hope. It had hope that maybe, just maybe, OPEC were going to pull something out of the bag that was going to spawn a further buying frenzy. But they didn't. They left the Cratchett household without even a sparrows egg for dinner, let alone a goose. According to API, we will see a draw on crude stocks later. But being the consistent commentator I am (ha!), I shall mostly be ignoring crude stock data by EIA and focusing more on products. On that happy note, gasoline stocks apparently rose by 9mn barrels and distillates 5mn. That's 14mn bbls of products in a week. 14 million. 14. One four. Let me put into context how big 14mn bbls is: that's 580,000,000 gallons. That's 2,225,821,080 litres. That's 27,822,763 bath-fulls. Or 3,918,699,084.50 pints.

Fuel Oil Market (December 5)

The front crack opened at -8.55, weakening to -8.80 across the day. The Cal 18 was valued at -8.10.

Cash differentials of Asia's 180-cst and 380-cst highsulphur fuel oil fell to multi-session lows on Tuesday amid a build-up in supplier selling pressure which saw physical trade volumes climb to a two-month high, industry sources said.

Some suppliers were keen to clear their fuel oil inventories as the calendar year draws to a close, traders said. Cash premiums of the mainstay 380-cst slipped to 42 cents a tonne to Singapore quotes, their lowest since Sept. 12.

Cash differentials of 180-cst fuel oil fell to a two-week low of minus 27 cents a tonne to Singapore quotes on Tuesday, down from a premium of 38 cents a tonne on Monday.

Economic Data/Events: (UK times)

* 7am: Germany factory orders m/m Oct. (prior 1%)

* 12pm: U.S. MBA mortgage applications Dec. 1 (prior -3.1%)

* 3:30pm: EIA issues weekly U.S. oil inventory report; TOPLive blog coverage begins 3:25pm

Singapore 380 cSt

Jan18 - 354.00 / 356.00

Feb18 - 354.25 / 356.25

Mar18 - 354.25 / 356.25

Apr18 - 354.00 / 356.00

May18 - 353.25 / 355.25

Jun18 - 352.50 / 354.50

Q1-18 - 354.25 / 356.25

Q2-18 - 353.00 / 355.00

Q3-18 - 349.50 / 352.00

Q4-18 - 345.25 / 347.75

CAL18 - 353.00 / 356.00

CAL19 - 318.25 / 323.25

Singapore 180 cSt

Jan18 - 358.50 / 360.50

Feb18 - 359.00 / 361.00

Mar18 - 359.25 / 361.25

Apr18 - 359.50 / 361.50

May18 - 359.00 / 361.00

Jun18 - 358.25 / 360.25

Q1-18 - 359.00 / 361.00

Q2-18 - 358.75 / 360.75

Q3-18 - 355.75 / 358.25

Q4-18 - 351.75 / 354.25

CAL18 - 359.00 / 362.00

CAL19 - 327.00 / 332.00

Rotterdam 380 cSt

Jan18 338.50 / 340.50

Feb18 339.50 / 341.50

Mar18 340.25 / 342.25

Apr18 340.50 / 342.50

May18 340.25 / 342.25

Jun18 339.50 / 341.50

Q1-18 339.50 / 341.50

Q2-18 339.25 / 341.25

Q3-18 335.25 / 337.75

Q4-18 327.25 / 329.75

CAL18 337.00 / 340.00

CAL19 298.00 / 303.00