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  • Jan 3rd, 2004
  • Comments Off on Asian oil swap prices dip with crude, gas oil crack firm
Singapore oil product swaps slipped on Friday in thin post-holiday dealing, with market sentiment clouded by losses in crude's last trade.

January gas oil paper was priced at $36.10 a barrel, down 50 cents from Wednesday, when the market was last traded actively, brokers said.

February US light crude futures settled 27 cents lower on Wednesday at $32.52 a barrel.

January gas oil's premium to February held strong at $1.15 a barrel and the product's price spread to Middle East Dubai crude held at $8.20 a barrel on support from healthy demand and tight supplies.

"Gas oil supplies are tight, so Asia is likely to stay strong," a trader in Singapore said.

The January re-grade, the price spread between gas oil and jet-kerosene, was traded at $1.00 a barrel in favour of jet- kerosene, brokers said.

In Singapore's last cash session, on Wednesday, one deal was done when Royal Dutch/Shell bought 250,000 barrels of low-sulphur material at $2.95 a barrel over spot quotes.

Brokers pegged January high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) prices at $161.50 a tonne, down 25 cents from Wednesday. January fuel oil was quoted at $2.50 a tonne below February as prompt demand from China remained weak.

January fuel oil stayed roughly $3.20 a barrel below Dubai.

No deals were concluded in Wednesday's cash session when Chemoil submitted the best bid for 180-cst HSFO at a discount of $3.50 a tonne to Singapore spot quotes for January 26-30 loading, and Hin Leong offered the same material at $159 a tonne or flat to Singapore spot quotes for January 15-19.

On Wednesday, Glencore submitted the best cash bid for 380-cst HSFO at $152 a tonne for January 24-28 loading while Kinetic offered January 26-30 material at $155.55.

Singapore's cash markets were closed on Thursday and are set to resume trade later on Friday from 0900-0930 GMT.

Copyright Reuters, 2004


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