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Fuel oil trend

Rotterdam: $ 2 higher.
Singapore: $ 1 lower.
US Gulf: $ 1 lower.

Turning saltwater into gasoil (!) (Brent: $107.4)

With the upcoming (start Jan15) regulation of sulphur emission, the oil market could have found itself rather short on gasoil as vessels shift to gasoil instead of heavy fuel oil. To mitigate this effect scientists at the Paris institute for fossil fuels (a subdivision of EIA) started researching nearly a decade ago for potential substitutes (instead of the "obvious" solution of: scrubbers, LNG or using gasoil). The revolutionary outcome that saltwater can in fact be transformed into a gasoil-like substance, a technical operation known in French as poisson d'avril, was discovered by the great-grandson of Jacque Cousteau (Fabien Cousteau) whilst studying sharks. Details are still a bit scarce as the news just broke around midnight, but from what we’ve been informed so far it works something like this: when sharks swims with open mouth to breathe (or "ram ventilates") it filters the water for oxygen. In the process an enzyme is released to separate the oxygen from the water. When the rest product leaves the gills it has gasoil-like specifications. The enzyme has now been rebuilt in a laboratory and turned into gasoil by adding a special mix of sugar and cellulose. Production is estimated to be able to reach 500mt/hour by the end of today. Effects on (gas)oil market remains to be seen.

In other (real) news:

Gazprom has raised prices (or decreased the discount) for gas delivered to Ukraine by more than $100 per 1,000 cubic meters. It will put immense economical pressure on Ukraine going forward, and rescue packages from US/EU will not be of much assistance. The current rescue packages discussed would be equivalent to 1 month budget (maximum).

Later today (16.00 CET) U.S. macro data (ISM) will be released. A slight pickup in volatility around publication should be expected. At 22.30 CET the private oil inventory data will be due.

P.S: possion d’avril is also known in English as: April fools.