BP Buys Mediterranean Gasoil Cargo; Naphtha Gains: Oil Products
February 11, 2012, 10:33 AM ESTBy Lananh Nguyen
Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc bought a cargo of gasoil for delivery to Elefsis, Greece at a $14 premium to March contracts on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London. The company also bought barges of diesel for the eighth day.
Naphtha rose after Vitol Group bought a 12,500 metric-ton cargo from Total SA.
Light Products
Gasoline for immediate loading in Amsterdam-Rotterdam- Antwerp traded from $1,033 to $1,043 a 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 yesterday from $1,036 to $1,041.
Cargill Inc., Trafigura Beheer BV and Royal Dutch Shell Plc bought Eurobob grade, to which ethanol is added to make finished motor fuel, from Morgan Stanley, Mabanaft BV and Chevron Corp.
The fuel’s crack, or premium to Brent, rose to $6.61 a barrel from $6.34 yesterday, according to data from PVM Oil Associates Ltd., a crude and refined products broker in London.
Vitol bought the naphtha from Total at $1,027 a ton, up from $985 a ton on Feb. 3, according to a survey of brokers and traders monitoring the Platts pricing window. The product’s discount to Brent narrowed to $4.54 a barrel from $5.15 yesterday, PVM data showed.
Middle Distillates
BP bought a 30,000 ton cargo of heating oil from OAO Lukoil’s Litasco unit at a premium of $14 to March gasoil on the ICE exchange, the survey showed.
Barges of gasoil also climbed, changing hands at a $5 a ton more than March futures with Gunvor Group Ltd. selling to BP. That compares with a deal yesterday at parity to February, which expired today. The lower-sulfur grade traded twice at a premium of $15 a ton to March ICE contracts.
Jet fuel dropped, as BP and Shell sold barges to Vitol at a premium of $55 to March gasoil, the survey showed. That’s down from trades at $58 more than March gasoil on Feb. 8.
Ultra-low-sulfur diesel traded from $16 to $17 a ton more than March gasoil as BP bought, the survey showed. The fuel traded at premiums of $15 and $16 yesterday. ConocoPhillips, Vitol and Statoil ASA sold.
Gasoil for March lost 0.3 percent, or $2.75, to $994 a ton at 5:45 p.m. London time on ICE. February expired at $997.75 earlier today. The new front-month contract was trading at a $5.75 a ton premium, or backwardation, to April.
Gasoil’s crack, a measure of refining profitability, rose to $16.28 a barrel from $15.84 at 4:30 p.m. yesterday. Front- month Brent dropped 1 percent to $117.37 a barrel on the ICE.
Rhine
Germany will close a stretch of waterway that links the Rhine River to the country’s canal network, halting shipments between industrial sites in the country’s west to cities including Hamburg and Berlin.
The Rhine-Herne canal will shut at 10 p.m. local time because of ice, Renate Schaefer, an official at the Wasser- und Schifffahrtsverwaltung, or WSV, said today from Muenster. A second waterway linking the Rhine to the canals is already closed, she said. The Rhine is Europe’s busiest inland waterway used to ship oil products, coal and grain.
“We continue to monitor the declining water levels on the Rhine, which will not help barge traffic and can cause some backup of products in ARA,” Olivier Jakob, managing director of Switzerland-based consultant Petromatrix GmbH, said in a note.
Residues
High-sulfur fuel oil fell, trading from $687 to $692 a ton, the survey of Platts showed. That compares with deals yesterday from $691 to $697.
--With assistance from Rachel Graham, Rupert Rowling and Helena Athanasiou in London. Editors: Raj Rajendran, Rachel Graham.
To contact the reporter on this story: Lananh Nguyen in London at lnguyen35@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net
