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Traders scramble for US storage as extracts demand disappoints

Traders are rushing to fill up tank along the U.S. East Coast with extract fuels, like diesel and heating oil, data from storage broker The Tank Tiger showed on Monday, an indication of deepening oversupply that is weighing on refiners' earnings.

Mainly warmer-than-expected winter season weather in U.S. Northeast and Europe has cut distillates demand and hit refiners' margins across the globe in recent months, an element that drove softer first-quarter earnings by oil majors and top independent refiners.

Spreads between U.S. crude and diesel futures << HOc1-CLc1 >, or fractures that show refining margins, have dropped more than 30% so far this year to under $25 a barrel.

Having a hard time to find outlets for their excess distillates, traders are scrambling to park it in storage tanks in New York Harbor, The Tank Tiger Chief Operating Officer Steven Barsamian said. Keeping in the Harbor permits them to export to Europe later in the year when demand improves, he added.

Distillates storage demand at New York Harbor leapt to around 300,000 barrels this month, from virtually no bidder interest in March, data from storage firm The Tank Tiger showed. The Tank Tiger's storage need information procedures bidder interest in renting storage tanks.

Distillates in storage rose by a surprise 1.6 million barrels in the week ended April 19 to 116.6 million barrels, as need fell 5% from the previous year to 3.55 million barrels per day, the weakest for this time because 2022, federal government data showed.

Increasing stocks and weak need pressed diesel futures into contango in recent weeks, a market structure where a commodity's. existing costs are lower than future costs. The shift marked. the first time that has actually occurred because 2021 in Europe. << LGOc1-LGOc4 > and first time given that June 2023 in the U.S. << HOc1-HOc4 >

The bidding up of timely storage is likely brought on by. some that think owning this now at lower costs means that. extracts will start to leap well above fuel entering into. the winter, a refined products broker concentrated on the New. York Harbor market stated.

U.S. refiner Phillips 66 echoed that view on a. teleconference with analysts after its first-quarter incomes. recently.

Refineries along the East Coast and West are changing to. producing more gas than extracts, which must allay. a few of the oversupply and help margins recover, the business. stated.

We are constructive. We do think the marketplace will come. back, Brian Mandell, Phillips 66's executive vice president of. Marketing and Commercial said in reaction to concerns on weaker. diesel fractures.

Diesel cracks are likewise very seasonal with natural. winter-strength and similarly, natural summer season weakness, stated. Bjarne Schieldrop, SEB's chief products expert.

There is a lot of focus on weak point in diesel demand. and cracks. However we require to keep in mind that we saw the very same. weak point last spring before the diesel fractures rallied into the. remainder of the year, he added.

(source: Reuters)