Gasoil cracks continue to boost crude prices

Crude prices remained firm yesterday, at 75.4 $/b for ICE Brent font-month contract, as gasoil cracks continued to sharply increase in Europe and Asia. The low sulfur gasoil cracks forward curve in Europe rose above 10 $/b during the last trading session, boosted by a recovery of European economic activity, as denoted in the mobility data, and increasingly long positioning from financial players on the ICE Gasoil curve. ARA diesel stocks levels fell by 1.1 mb last week, which is boosting East-West flows towards Europe, as the arb between Asian and European ULSD cargoes is now close to 15 $/T. With cracks rising so rapidly down the curve, this boosts refining margins ahead of the winter. As European refiners are now forced to increase jet fuel yields if they want to increase their throughputs, European diesel supply is likely to be capped in the short term, implying that these levels of prices could last. Physical crude prices rose back in Asia, especially for light sweet ESPO prices, at yearly highs, in anticipation of the last batch of export quotas for Chinese independent refiners.