MABUX: Bunker Market this morning April, 04
The Bunker Review was contributed by Marine Bunker Exchange
MABUX World Bunker Index (consists of a range of prices for 380 HSFO, 180 HSFO and MGO (Gasoil) in the main world hubs) continued upward trend on Apr. 03
380 HSFO - USD/MT 423.00 (+1.21)
180 HSFO - USD/MT 468.79 (+1.00)
MGO - USD/MT 638.21 (+2.00)
Meantime, world oil indexes declined on Apr. 03 after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a crude inventory rise.
Brent for June settlement decreased by $0.06 to $69.31 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. West Texas Intermediate for May delivery fell by $0.12 to $62.46 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The Brent benchmark traded at the premium of 6.85 to WTI. Gasoil for April delivery declined by $2.75.
Today oil indexes are mixed.
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a crude inventory rise of 7.24 million barrels for the last week. It was expected a stockpile drop of 425,000 barrels. The EIA also said gasoline inventories fell by 1.78 million barrels, compared to expectations for a draw of 1.54 million barrels. Distillate stockpiles dropped by 2.0 million barrels, compared to forecasts for a decline of 506,000. Those declines came on the back of refinery output running steadily at just under 86.5%. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 201,000 barrels. U.S. crude production climbed 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) to a record 12.2 million bpd, after hovering around 12-12.1 million bpd since mid-February.
The inventory build reported by the EIA could to be the result of distortions caused by the recent closure of the Houston Shipping Channel. A fire late last month at a chemical storage facility led to the shutdown of the important hub for crude oil imports and refinery runs. U.S. crude exports have also slid due to the outage, reaching just 2.72 million barrels per day last week after record highs of 3.6 million earlier in March.
At the same time, oil indexes have been supported by efforts by OPEC and allies such as Russia to withhold around 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of supply this year. Supply from OPEC countries hit a four-year low in March. Oil production from Russia fell to 11.3 million bpd last month, but missed the country's target under the supply deal.
In a sign that supply may tighten further, a U.S. official said on April, 2 that three of eight countries granted waivers by Washington to import oil from Iran had cut such purchases to zero, adding that improved oil market conditions would help reduce Iranian crude exports further. While the United States has set a goal of completely halting Iran's oil exports, it granted temporary import waivers to China, India, Greece, Italy, Taiwan, Japan, Turkey and South Korea to ensure low oil prices and no disruption to the global oil market. U.S. oil sanctions against Iran had removed about 1.5 million barrels of Iranian oil exports from the market since May 2018.
At the same time Trump administration official told reporters on April,1 that the U.S. government was considering additional sanctions against Iran that would target areas of its economy that have not been hit before.
But despite also being under U.S. sanctions, Venezuela's state-run energy company, PDVSA, kept oil exports near 1 million bpd in March.
We expect bunker prices to demonstrate slight downward changes today: USD 1-3 down for IFO, USD 1-3 down for MGO.
