Jack Wittels, Saket Sundria and William Clowes/Bloomberg News

LONDON/SINGAPORE/LAGOS
EnergiesNet.com 02 11 2022

The gasoline market is roaring higher in Europe and Asia as Nigeria urgently seeks resupply of the fuel after receiving cargoes that were unsuitable for domestic consumption.

The road fuel’s premium to crude — a key metric for traders — surged to its strongest since 2019 in northwest Europe, with an even bigger high in Asia, according to fair value data compiled by Bloomberg. There have also been gains in the U.S., where supply was already hit by halts at several refineries.

Nigeria’s state oil firm has ramped up imports of gasoline after some cargoes that were rejected because of their elevated methanol content, the industry’s midstream and downstream regulator said on Twitter.

Traders in Europe and Asia said Nigeria’s need for imports was supporting gasoline margins in these regions. However, traders — and officials in Nigeria — were unable to confirm a Reuters report that the country has an emergency need of about 500,000 metric tons. Such a figure —  about 16% of the world’s daily demand for the fuel — would be hard to source in the spot market at short notice.

Gasoline margins have already been above seasonal norms in recent weeks, boosted by unplanned refinery outages in both the U.S. Gulf coast and Europe. Europe crack spreads over crude reached $14.99 a barrel on Wednesday, up from $9.31 at the start of the year.

Stockpiles in the U.S. are well below the five-year average and, at a global level, demand is expected to rise to 99% of the 2019 level this year, according to the International Energy Agency.

bloomberg.com 02 10 2022