Weekly Lubricant Report: Expected Asia Market Price Increase in the Upcoming Fortnight

The price of Brent crude oil has reached above 83 dollars after several weeks and is likely to increase further.

A major earthquake hitting southeast Turkey has caused operations at Iskenderun port to shut down and docks collapsed at this port. Currently, no ships can dock at Iskenderun for unloading, and several vessels have been spotted waiting outside the port.  

On the other side, more than half a million British workers took strike action on Wednesday, 1st February due to the inflation. 

Many unions say their workers’ pay has been eroded over the past 10 years by only modest growth, further compounding the impact of the recent high inflation, which is caused by soaring energy prices and the after-effects of the pandemic.

As the fear of the recession of the world’s major economies gripped the market, Fatih Birol, the head of the IEA, said on Sunday that demand improvement in China could be one of the main factors determining the price of oil.

According to Goldman, based on the sanctions likely to cause Russian oil exports to drop and Chinese demand expected to recover as the country ends its Zero Covid policy, prices will rise above 100 dollars from their current level of around 80 dollars .

In Asia, India will probably increase the prices on February 15, Iran has a supply chain problem and the price of fuel in Singapore is increasing. 

Currently, Iran’s recycled base oil price FOB Bandar Abbas is in the range 730-740 dollars, caustic soda between 770- 790 dollars and paraffin wax is in the range 950-1000 dollars.

This article was prepared by Mozhdeh Darbandizadeh, the account manager of Infinity Galaxy (www.infinitygalaxy.org).