Singapore's middle distillates stocks fall 7.5% on robust jet fuel outflow

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Middle distillates stocks held at key storage hub Singapore slipped by 7.5% week on week as robust jet fuel outflows outweighed a surge in gasoil total imports from regional sellers, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Inventories of gasoil and jet fuel/kerosene were 7.989 million barrels (1.072 million metric tons) in the week ended Aug. 30, down from 8.635 million barrels a week ago, the data added. Jet fuel/kerosene net exports surged by around 54% week on week to above 65,000 tons as outflows to Malaysia grew.

Cargo flows to the Pacific region continued from the previous week, with key destinations being Australia, Fiji and New Zealand.

Cargo outflows to the Pacific will likely be little changed in the near term as international travel remains steady, especially as China encourages more international group travel to regions including Australia, a Singapore-based analyst said.

Below are the top contributor countries for jet fuel/kerosene exports in the week and their respective volumes (in tons): Gasoil-wise, total import volumes continued to climb - in line with earlier expectations and shiptracking data - as lucrative profits continue to draw sellers to offload cargoes into Singapore.

India volumes into Singapore remained almost steady week on week, with expectations of more arrivals until the first week of September, shiptracking data from LSEG and Kpler showed. At least two more vessels carrying up to 100,000 tons of gasoil will arrive in the next two weeks, shiptracking data from Kpler showed.

Malaysia-origin cargoes also resumed as refinery operations stabilized after some earlier unplanned outages, one trading source said.

Small volumes from Oman resurfaced after a one-month hiatus, but more are not expected to come given stronger seller margins to the West-of-Suez markets since two weeks earlier, a second source said. No September loadings from Oman to Singapore have been recorded so far on shiptracking data from LSEG.

Gasoil volumes from China to Singapore remained absent in the week, with key China oil majors selling their cargoes to other southeast Asian regions instead, one trading analyst said. Below are the top contributor countries for gasoil imports in the week and their respective volumes (in tons): Total gasoil exports fell by almost 12% week on week on lower outflows to regions including Australia, Hong Kong and Myanmar.

We remind, Sinopec Corp, is not interested in acquiring Shell's refinery or petrochemical plant in Singapore although it is keen on participating in a shale gas project in Saudi Arabia. Sinopec President Yu Baocai was speaking after sources last week told Reuters that Shell had hired Goldman Sachs to advise on a potential sale of its Singapore assets and that Sinopec was among the companies reviewing them.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia, one of the world's biggest oil producers, has faced shortages of fuel crucial for gathering the harvest in some parts of its southern breadbasket and the situation may get worse in coming months, market sources told Reuters.

Traders said that the fuel market has been hit by a combination of different factors including maintenance at oil refineries, infrastructure bottlenecks on railways and the weaker rouble which incentivizes fuel exports.

Russia has tried to tackle diesel and gasoline shortages over recent months, contemplating export curbs as the last-ditch attempt to prevent a serious fuel crisis - which is sensitive for the Kremlin ahead of a presidential election in March.

A government decision to cut subsidies for refineries is likely worsen the availability of fuel in the world's biggest grain exporter.

Regional oil product depots in Russia's southern regions have had to cut or even suspend fuel sales, while retail filling stations were forced to limit fuel sale volumes to customers.

"The Ai-92 gasoline is not available for retail sales in Krasnodar region, Adygea and Astrakhan, there is hardly any Ai-95 gasoline and diesel," a trader in Russia's south said.

Another trader said there have been no diesel sales at oil depots and there is no diesel on retail markets for the second week running in the whole Samara region, located in the Volga river region.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday that there were no fuel shortages.

But he also said government was working on measures to ensure a stable supply of it on the domestic market, including increasing levels of mandatory sales on exchanges and limiting the number of exporters.

We remind, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday that Russia may extend oil export cuts to the month of October and has fully met its obligations to reduce supply in Augus. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, led by Russia, began limiting output late last year to bolster the market and in June extended the supply curbs into 2024. Russia said separately that it would cut oil exports by 500,000 barrels per day, or around 5% of its output, in August and by 300,000 bpd in September.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sahara International Petrochemical Co. (Sipchem) announced the establishment of a new subsidiary, Sipchem Innovent Investment Co., to achieve sustainable growth by supporting and financing startups in the field of sustainability, said Argaam.

The move aligns with Sipchem's strategic pillars for 2030, as it seeks to benefit from new technologies to boost innovations, develop advanced technology, and adopt new business models that contribute to sustainable transformation.

This is in addition to developing the company's products in response to the needs of customers in global markets through its business to access innovative technologies that support its core business and promote the growth of the circular economy, Sipchem said in a statement.

Moreover, Sipchem Innovent will invest in technology startups through cooperation with international specialized partners and clients in the field of research and development to provide diverse and innovative solutions, in addition to enabling startups to access technical and knowledge support through Sipchem's extensive experience in manufacturing and marketing.

The company stressed commitment to the pillars of its strategy, topped by sustainability and investment to achieve the main objectives, such as expansion and profitability, as well as developing its sustainability efforts towards the environment.

We remind, Sahara International Petrochemical Co's (Sipchem) net profit fell by 24.8% year on year in the third quarter amid a drop in selling prices, the Saudi Arabia producer said in a stock exchange filing. Decrease in most of the selling prices of company’s products in the third quarter specially methanol, butanediol, ethyl acetate and polypropylene (PP), the company said in a filing on the Saudi bourse, Tadawul, on 18 October. - Earnings also weighed by the increase in feedstock prices of butane, ethylene, ethanol and propane.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil prices extended gains on Wednesday after U.S. government data showed tighter-than-expected crude supplies in the world's biggest fuel consumer, while a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico kept investors on edge, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Brent crude futures for October rose 21 cents to USD85.70 a barrel by 1108 a.m. EDT (1508 GMT). The October contract expires on Thursday and the more active November contract was at USD85.13, up 22 cents. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 30 cents to USD81.46.

Both benchmarks rallied by more than a dollar on Tuesday as the U.S. currency weakened after soft U.S. jobs data reduced the likelihood of further increases to interest rates. U.S. crude inventories fell by 10.6 million barrels in the last week to 422.9 million barrels, Energy Information Administration data showed on Wednesday. Analysts in a Reuters poll expected a 3.3 million-barrel drop.

Product supplied of finished motor gasoline - a proxy for demand - was at about 9.1 million barrels per day. "I would expect (gasoline demand) to fall precipitously from here," said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital, as gasoline demand typically peaks in the summer driving season.

Investors also had an eye on Hurricane Idalia, which came ashore as a Category 3 storm on Wednesday morning in a Florida region where the state's northern panhandle curves into the Florida Peninsula.

The hurricane had moved over the Gulf of Mexico to the east of major U.S. oil and natural gas production sites. The region accounts for about 15% of U.S. oil output and about 5% of natural gas production, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Oil major Chevron Corp evacuated some staff from the region but production was continuing. Elsewhere, analysts expect Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, to extend its voluntary output cut into October, keeping oil supply tight.

Based on that expectation, refining sources surveyed by Reuters forecast that Saudi Arabia's official selling prices for all crude grades sold to Asia in October will be raised to their highest this year.

Meanwhile, the military seized power in Gabon on Wednesday, which could hit the country's crude supplies and tighten the market further. Gabon exported a monthly average of 160,000 barrels per day to Asia from May to July, Kpler ship-tracking data showed.

Oil's gains were capped, however, by concerns over the mixed economic situation in China, the world's biggest oil importer.

We remind, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday that Russia may extend oil export cuts to the month of October and has fully met its obligations to reduce supply in August, TASS news agency reported. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, led by Russia, began limiting output late last year to bolster the market and in June extended the supply curbs into 2024.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Bayer’ Crop Science division plans to invest EUR220 million in a new research and development (R&D) facility at its Monheim, Germany site, said the company.

This is the company’s largest single investment in its crop protection business in Germany since the founding of the Monheim campus in 1979, Bayer said.

The new complex with labs, offices, and a greenhouse area will offer space for approximately 200 employees and focus “on developing the next generation of chemicals for a sustainable future and enhancing the environmental and human safety of crop protection.”

“Looking into the future, we must radically transform today’s farming systems and switch to regenerative agriculture practices that produce more with less, while restoring more. There is a high demand for pushing beyond established standards in safety to unlock breakthrough innovation and crop protection solutions with better environmental profiles,” said Robert Reiter, Head of R&D at Bayer’s Crop Science division.

The investment is also a clear commitment to Europe as a base of operations, said Bayer. Over the past three years, the company states that it has invested €180 million at its German site in Dormagen, with a focus on expanding production capacities for modern crop protection.

In addition to residue analytics and metabolism studies in target crops, rotational crops and livestock for human safety, the key focus area of the new facility will be on environmental safety, Bayer said. This includes exposure studies in different environmental compartments as well as safety studies on non-target organisms such as aquatic and soil organisms, wild birds and mammals, and pollinators like honey bees and bumble bees.

Rachel Rama, head of small molecules at Crop Science, said: “With our new disruptive innovation approach – what we call CropKey – we are now designing molecules instead of selecting them.” Data science, early safety screenings, modeling and artificial intelligence are crucial elements that enable the creation of the next generation of crop protection, taking advantage of massive amounts of data and machine learning and setting a new benchmark, Rama explained.

We remind, the Supervisory Board of Bayer AG has unanimously appointed Heike Prinz to Bayer’s Board of Management effective September 1, 2023. She will become the company’s Chief Talent Officer and Labor Director. This follows the mutual agreement by Board member Sarena Lin and Bayer’s Supervisory Board to not extend her contract beyond January 31, 2024.

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