Singapore oil product swaps prices were mixed in midday trade on Monday with fuel oil stronger and gas oil under some pressure, traders said. Brokers quoted both March and April fuel oil prices slightly stronger at $215.50 a tonne. But the March/April time spread flattened out to parity from a 50-cent backwardation on Friday. "Demand is really thin. China is pretty much dead because prices are too high," said a trader in Singapore.
Singapore 380-centistoke fuel oil matched the record-high level of $209.38 a tonne on Friday, driven by red-hot crude oil and aggressive bidding by BP Singapore, dealers said.
Fuel oil's spread to Dubai crude stayed mired in a deep discount of minus $10.95 a barrel.
March gas oil prices eased by 20 cents to $60.55 a barrel, but the March/April price spread firmed to a 50-cent backwardation, from a tiny 10-cent spread on Friday.
Pertamina added some pressure by skipping requests for gas oil and kerosene via tender although some dealers said the Indonesian firm would take spot supply instead.
Indonesia is already importing a total of 7.54 million barrels of middle distillates for March.
A tender from Indian Oil Corp for 175,000 tonnes of 0.05 percent sulphur gas oil for April and May has helped boost the prompt month, dealers said.
But the gas oil crack spread narrowed to $16.40 a barrel, from $16.70 on Friday and from more than $17.00 seen last week.
The regrade, the price spread between jet-kerosene and gas oil, stood mostly steady at $2.40 a barrel.
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