Image credit: Freight Investor Services (FIS)

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Commentary

Brent crude oil rose 54 cents to $77.37 a barrel after touching a session high of $77.92 a barrel and WTI crude futures settled down 21 cents at $67.54 a barrel. It seems that we have gotten into one of those news ruts, where we get the same news title for days across all news platforms. Again, I will offer all the news story writers a thesaurus to making sure that we have a little variation on the news title of 'Looming Iran sanctions'. There's nothing looming about them, they are already here, and they are already having an effect. We have seen a strong bullish move on oil futures over the past handful of days. I have therefore boiled down most of the main news items in a short ditty for you the remember:

The U.S. is now stalling,
And crude supply is falling,
News stories are boring,
But crude prices are soaring,
Venezuela is collapsing,
This means no relaxing,
Because no one's a clue,
What oil is going to do.

Fuel Oil Market (Sep 10)

The front crack opened at -11.30, weakening to -11.55, before strengthening to -11.35. The Cal 19 was valued at -15.60.

Asia's front-month time spread edged slightly higher on Monday in a sign of stabilizing market sentiment after steady losses over the past month.

The 380 cSt Oct/Nov time spread was trading at about $4 a tonne, up from about $3.70 a tonne on Friday, broker sources said.

Higher arbitrage supplies into Asia have weighed on market sentiment since around mid-August, but steady demand and lower regional output due to refinery maintenance is expected to limit further losses, trade sources said.

Economic data/events (Times are London.)

* ~5pm: EIA Short-Term Energy Outlook

* 9:30pm: API issues weekly U.S. oil inventory report

* Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok; through Thursday; energy-related discussions on Tuesday and Wednesday; Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at forum on Tuesday

* Bloomberg-compiled refinery snapshot for U.S. and Canada, providing offline capacity projections for crude units and FCCs

Singapore 380 cSt

Oct18 - 438.50 / 440.50

Nov18 - 434.25 / 436.25

Dec18 - 430.25 / 432.25

Jan19 - 426.50 / 428.50

Feb19 - 423.00 / 425.00

Mar19 - 419.50 / 421.50

Q4-18 - 434.25 / 436.25

Q1-19 - 422.75 / 424.75

Q2-19 - 412.25 / 414.75

Q3-19 - 396.75 / 399.25

CAL19 - 399.25 / 402.25

CAL20 - 334.25 / 340.25

Singapore 180 cSt

Oct18 - 445.50 / 447.50

Nov18 - 442.00 / 444.00

Dec18 - 439.50 / 441.50

Jan19 - 436.75 / 438.75

Feb19 - 433.50 / 435.50

Mar19 - 430.25 / 432.25

Q4-18 - 442.25 / 444.25

Q1-19 - 432.75 / 434.75

Q2-19 - 423.75 / 426.25

Q3-19 - 411.75 / 414.25

CAL19 - 413.75 / 416.75

CAL20 - 354.25 / 360.25

Rotterdam 3.5%

Oct18 - 417.50 / 419.50

Nov18 - 413.25 / 415.25

Dec18 - 409.75 / 411.75

Jan19 - 407.25 / 409.25

Feb19 - 404.75 / 406.75

Mar19 - 402.25 / 404.25

Q4-18 - 413.50 / 415.50

Q1-19 - 404.50 / 406.50

Q2-19 - 395.50 / 398.00

Q3-19 - 376.50 / 379.00

CAL19 - 377.75 / 380.75

CAL20 - 317.25 / 323.25