Americas Market Update 9 Nov

Bunker prices have mostly fallen across the Americas since Friday, and LSMGO has been fixed well below offers in Corpus Christi.

IMAGE: Two vessels transiting the Corpus Christi Ship Channel. Port of Corpus Christi

Changes on the day from Friday to 07.00 CST (13.00 GMT) today:

• VLSFO prices down in Los Angeles ($48/mt), New York ($31/mt), Houston ($17/mt) and Balboa ($12/mt)
• LSMGO prices up in Balboa ($77/mt), and down in Los Angeles ($88/mt), Houston ($55/mt), Zona Comun ($49/mt) and New York ($34/mt)
• HSFO prices up in Balboa ($21/mt), and down in Los Angeles ($54/mt), Houston ($38/mt) and New York ($22/mt)

Houston’s LSMGO price has fallen by $55/mt since Friday. Suppliers quoted the grade in a range of $1,311-1,352/mt on Friday, and a drop in Brent has since pulled the market down considerably. HSFO was quoted at $486-538/mt on Friday.

Bunker demand was strong in Houston last week, when prices came off sharply, a trader said. One supplier is not able to offer LSMGO with 3-4 days of lead time.

Corpus Christi’s VLSFO was quoted at $829/mt on Friday, and HSFO at $613-623/mt, with one stem fixed at $614/mt. LSMGO was offered at $1,357-1,420/mt but fixed at a much lower $1,314/mt, with 3-7 days of lead time, a trader said. One supplier's earliest delivery dates for HSFO and LSMGO are 9-10 November.

Cristobal’s VLSFO was quoted at $824-865/mt on Friday, a trader said. One supplier's earliest delivery date was 11 days out.

Brent

The front-month ICE Brent contract has lost $3.78/bbl on the day from Friday, trading at $94.41/bbl at 07.00 CST (13.00 GMT) today.

Upward pressure:

Brent futures have gained some support from ongoing attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Yemen-based Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for Sunday’s an attack on Saudi state-owned oil company Aramco’s building in Riyadh, Reuters reported.

Commercial crude stocks in the US fell by 865,000 bbls to 409.8 million bbls in the week that ended 30 October, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Downward pressure

Brent’s price has declined following recent remarks by US President Donald Trump.

On Sunday, Trump said that he was "highly unlikely" to order fresh strikes on Iran, if talks to resolve the US-Iran conflict continues, Reuters reported.

Expectations of a possible de-escalation in the conflict have kept oil prices under pressure, following a major election loss for Trump’s party.

“Vice President Vance attributed the Republican losses to the conflict with Iran, while Democrats Schumer and Jeffries pledged to end the war,” said ANZ Bank senior commodity strategist Daniel Hynes.

By Erik Hoffmann and Shilpa Sharma

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