Asia Cross Barrel: Pricing Analyst Update, 27–31 Jul

• Jet fuel: flat price down $5.76/bbl w-o-w to $155.23/bbl (30 Jul); cash differential up $0.20/bbl to $2.06/bbl; regrade widened $1.21/bbl to -$7.84/bbl.
• 10ppm gasoil: flat price down $4.55/bbl w-o-w to $163.07/bbl (30 Jul); cash differential up $0.35/bbl to $6.85/bbl.
• 92 RON gasoline: flat price down $5.95/bbl w-o-w to $118.78/bbl (30 Jul); cash differential up $0.98/bbl to $4.95/bbl.
• Flat prices retreated after Saudi Arabia unveiled plans for a multinational maritime coalition to protect Red Sea shipping, easing some of the risk premium tied to Houthi attacks on vessels.
• Sentiment this week whipsawed on mixed US-Iran signals: continued airstrikes alternated with reports of possible peace talks.
• Premia increased on escalations in the US-Iran war. Traders say adequate regional cargo supply capped prices, but liquidity has thinned over the past few days, as suppliers hold back offers amid uncertainty over whether Middle East flow disruptions will persist or deepen.

Key watch items going forward:

• Whether Middle East outflows stabilise, worsen, or improve, now compounded by fresh risk to Red Sea diversions.
• Chinese refiners’ August export allocations, still unconfirmed.
• Renewed risk of export bans by Asian producing nations should crude flow slow.

About the Author
Carrie Ho, Senior Pricing Analyst at Sparta, brings nearly 15 years of experience across global energy and metals markets, with a particular focus on oil and LNG benchmarks. Before joining Sparta, Carrie was Associate Journalism Director at OPIS by Dow Jones, where she led energy and commodities coverage and honed her understanding of how political and economic forces drive market structure and price dynamics. She now applies this expertise to Sparta’s pricing assessments, helping clients navigate increasingly complex physical and derivatives markets.
Connect: LinkedIn

About Sparta
Founded in 2020, Sparta made waves in the commodity analytics space in March 2022 when it secured a $6m series A investment from Singular. This success then later snowballed into a further $17.5 million in a series A funding round led by the technology venture capital firm FirstMark, with participation from existing shareholder, Singular.

The platform, created by former traders Miles Moseley and Felipe Elink Schuurman, is designed to answer a common problem shared by most traders: 90% of pricing data required to make trading decisions is kept in silos and shared manually by voice, email, or chat.

Sparta breaks these existing data silos and combines the physical and paper markets to provide traders with live access to global raw prices, from futures and swaps to forward freight and physical premiums. We work with clients globally, including Philips 66, Chevron, Trafigura, Equinor and more.