Asia Middle Distillates – Pricing Update – 18–22 May
Jet fuel
- Singapore jet flat price rose $0.45/bl w/w to $160.25/bl on 20 May, supported by pre-summer travel demand and lean inventories in Singapore and Europe.
- Cash diffs firmed $0.18/bl to $1.88/bl.
- Regrade gained $1.94/bl w/w to $-3.67/bl, but remains in negative territory.
Gasoil
- Singapore moved largely sideways, while South Korea weakened slightly (a late June-loading ULSD cargo sold mid-week showed slightly lower premiums).
- Singapore 10ppm flat price slipped $1.49/bl w/w to $163.92/bl on 20 May; cash diffs firmed $0.44/bl to $7.04/bl.
- Boreal summer demand provides a seasonal floor; heatwave conditions across Asia add incremental diesel burn.
- High prices continue to weigh on buying appetite.
- Regular South Korean export flows cap the upside.
About the Author
Carrie Ho, our Senior Pricing Analyst at Sparta Commodities, 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.
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.
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