Oil Markets

The disruption to flows through the Strait of Hormuz is rapidly reshaping the Asian jet fuel market at a critical juncture, just as seasonal demand accelerates ahead of the peak summer travel period. As one of the world's most important energy chokepoints, the Strait has long facilitated the movement of significant volumes of Middle Eastern jet fuel. The loss of these flows is now forcing market participants to reassess supply security, trade routes, and pricing dynamics across the region.
In this episode of the Platts Oil Markets Podcast, Jonathan Nonis, associate editorial director, is joined by members of the global editorial team — Lee Shu Ling and Aruni Sunil — to examine how the disruption is translating into the physical market. They explore the extent to which supply dislocations are tightening regional balances, the adjustments in trade flows and inventory strategies, and the emergence of demand destruction. They also look at how key benchmarks — including FOB Arab Gulf and FOB Singapore jet fuel, as well as the East-West arbitrage — are responding to tighter supply conditions.

European and Asian LPG fundamentals have sharply diverged following the disruption to flows through the Strait of Hormuz in late February and early March. The supply shock sent Asian propane prices sharply higher, tightened availability, and disrupted petrochemical demand. Meanwhile, the European market, especially the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp hub, has remained comparatively well supplied and under pressure.
To examine the latest trends in this segment, S&P Global Energy's Gary Clark, the associate director of the EMEA clean refined price reporting team, is joined by Senior Price Reporter Barbara Fernandez-Pita to help explain how record US exports, surging freight costs, a closed arbitrage window, and the end of the winter heating season have helped insulate European propane from the worst of the global squeeze.

US crude exports have hit record high in April as buyers looked far afield to replace barrels that have been blocked by the Middle East war and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The surge in demand has been a boon for US suppliers, and there has been a scramble to overcome infrastructure constraints in order to push exports even higher. With Persian Gulf supply unlikely to return at pre-war levels anytime soon, are markets seeing a temporary dislocation or a more durable shift in global crude flows? 
In this episode of Platts Oil Markets Podcast by S&P Global Energy, Oil Futures editor Chris van Moessner is joined by Americas oil news editors Binish Azhar and Ashok Dutta, and crude oil price reporter Lucas Casas to discuss what is driving these record exports, their near-term outlook, and how the US midstream and upstream business segments are reacting to this new paradigm.

India's crude imports are climbing, not just in volume, but in complexity. As the country widens its pool of suppliers, it is also exposing itself to a more fragmented pricing landscape. But here is the challenge -- in a world where geopolitical conflicts and supply shocks can send prices soaring overnight, how do you protect the energy sector and the economy from extreme volatility?
In this bonus episode of Platts Oil Markets Podcast by S&P Global Energy, Asia Energy Editor Sambit Mohanty is joined by Gouri Shankar, vice president for product strategy at the National Stock Exchange, Pulkit Agarwal, head of India Content, and John Morley, global head of crude oil pricing, to discuss the need for sophisticated benchmarks in managing risk, and what the latest NSE crude oil contract based on a physical price benchmark -- Platts Dated Brent -- can offer to Indian market participants.

With more than two months having passed since the beginning of the war in the Middle East, a conflict that has tightened refined oil product flows through the Strait of Hormuz, market participants have been grappling with major upheaval in middle distillate trade routes as Europe seeks to replace lost Middle East supply.
To examine the latest trends in this vital segment, S&P Global Energy's Emma Kettley, associate director, price reporting, is joined by reporters David Neef and Patrick McAllister to unpack how Europe has adapted to the disruptions to its key supply source in the Persian Gulf.