MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures were steady during mid-morning Asian trade June 22 in the absence of new developments, although bullish demand outlooks continue to support the market, reported S&P Global.
At 11:11 am Singapore time (0311 GMT), the August ICE Brent crude futures contract was up 23 cents/b (0.31%) from the previous settle at USD75.13/b, while the NYMEX July light sweet crude contract slipped 2 cents/b (0.03%) at USD73.64b.
The stability in prices this morning comes after both markers closed at landmark highs on June 21. The front month ICE Brent marker closed at USD74.90/b, the highest on record since Oct. 31, 2018, while the front month NYMEX light sweet crude marker closed at USD73.60/b, the highest since Oct. 9, 2018.
Market analysts attributed the elevated crude prices to a US-led recovery in global demand.
In the US, analysts surveyed by S&P Global said they expected a 0.5 percentage point increase in refinery utilization to 93.1% of total capacity to have pushed commercial crude stocks 6.3 million barrels lower in the week ended June 18. Such a draw would have left stocks 5.5% behind the five-year average of US Energy Information Administration data at 460.4 million barrels, they said.
The increase in refinery utilization is driven by strong downstream products demand.
Apple Mobility data showed US driving activity pushed to around 164% of the index's January 2020 baseline in the week ended June 18, up six percentage points from the week prior and a fresh record high for the dataset. Furthermore in an encouraging sign for distillate demand, Apple data also showed US transit readership averaging 95% of baseline last week, the highest since the first week of March 2020.
ANZ analysts also noted that demand for aviation travel in the US was also on an uptrend, providing further thrust to the crude complex.
Moving away from the US, rising vaccination rates and easing mobility restrictions in much of Europe also portend well for oil demand, which is expected to receive another boost as the pandemic situation in key Asian economies such as India and Japan abate.
We remind that as MRC informed earlier, Indian refiners, anticipating a lifting of US sanctions, plan to make space for the resumption of Iranian imports by reducing spot crude oil purchases in the second half of the year. The world"s third-largest oil consumer and importer halted imports from Tehran in 2019 after former US President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 accord and re-imposed sanctions on the OPEC producer over its disputed nuclear programme.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 744,130 tonnes in the first four month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, PP deliveries to the Russian market were 523,900 tonnes in January-April 2021, up by 55% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased.
MRC