SINGAPORE: Asia’s 10-ppm sulphur gasoil margins were little changed at $25.06 a barrel, fluctuating in the $1 a barrel range, with liquidity improving in the open market for the first time in almost a week.

Some prompt buyers in the market emerged presumably to cover their positions following potentially tighter supplies amid an ongoing strike at some refineries in France.

Cash differentials for 10 ppm sulphur gasoil went up to 83 cents per barrel as a result.

Regrade widened to a discount of $2.45 a barrel, owing to a faster pace of decrease in jet fuel refining margins to $22.61 per barrel.

Japan’s biggest refiner, Eneos Corp, has shut the 129,000 barrels-per-day crude distillation unit (CDU) at its Chiba refinery on Monday for scheduled maintenance, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday.

US crude oil and product inventories were expected to have decreased last week, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday. Seven analysts polled by Reuters estimated on average that crude inventories fell by about 300,000 barrels in the week to March 3. Distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, were expected to have decreased by about 1.3 million barrels last week.

Malaysia’s biodiesel exports in 2023 are expected to fall to a six-year low of 300,000 tonnes due to the European Union’s decarbonisation plans, the Malaysian Biodiesel Association (MBA) said on Tuesday.

China’s crude oil imports fell 1.3% in the first two months of 2023 from a year earlier, data showed on Tuesday, but analysts pointed to accelerating imports in February as a sign that fuel demand was rebounding after Beijing scrapped COVID-19 controls.

Total Energies said on Tuesday that fuel deliveries were halted at its French sites due to a strike against the government’s planned pension reform.

Oil prices were little changed on Tuesday, after rising for the past five sessions, as concerns about limited spare capacity in the market and uncertainty over Russian supplies offset mixed oil data from top crude importer China.