Generic Hero BannerGeneric Hero Banner
Latest Market News

Nymex futures curve reflects bunker expectations

  • Spanish Market: Oil products
  • 16/01/18

Nymex futures curve for diesel and high-sulphur fuel oil and Brent reflect the potential for January 2020 marine fuel regulation to widen crack spreads. Widening spreads have indicated expectations European and American demand will switch away from fuel oil and to distillates.

Nymex data shows US Gulf 3pc sulphur residual fuel oil and Rotterdam 3.5pc sulphur residual fuel oil futures selling at $9.12-12.94/bl discount to Brent until August 2019. During the period September 2019 through December 2020, the US Gulf and Rotterdam fuel oil futures discount to crude widens to $13.55-19.90/bl.

The 2021 northwest Europe futures contracts have predicted eventual recovery in the residual fuel oil price compared with Brent, and show the resid market in contango. For 2021 the Rotterdam fuel oil monthly crack spread ranges at $13.70-14.75/bl compared with Gulf coast fuel oil crack spread at $13.67-22.93/bl. The narrower northwest European spread in 2021 could be attributed to an expected drop in residual fuel oil stocks on the back of Russian refinery upgrades, which could reduce fuel oil exports from the Russian Baltic Sea to Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp storage terminals.

The Nymex New York ultra-low sulphur diesel, or 0.0015pc sulphur diesel, futures price premium to Brent futures prices range between $16.68-19.97/bl through December 2019, and then widens to $20.21-21.75/bl for 2020 before widening again to $21.95-23.19/bl for 2021, demonstrating in part the assumption that the shipping market would mostly implement a distillate-based solution to comply with the 2020 marine emissions regulation.

Nymex futures crack spread snapshot $/bl

Generic Hero Banner

Business intelligence reports

Get concise, trustworthy and unbiased analysis of the latest trends and developments in oil and energy markets. These reports are specially created for decision makers who don’t have time to track markets day-by-day, minute-by-minute.

Learn more