More Bear Signs For Diesel

Gas oil prices in Asia could come under fresh pressure this week as the market factors in new signals of weak demand, traders said yesterday. A deal between the UN and Iraq is putting the entire oil complex under pressure, although full details of the deal are yet to emerge. A spokesman for Kofi Annan said the deal had been reached, but the US and Britain offered only a cautious response. State-owned Indian Oil Corp took just two 0.25 per cent sulphur diesel cargoes in its April buying tender. It cancelled the one per cent diesel element of the tender. Traders on Friday said they had expected India to take up to seven cargoes of diesel for April. The combination of weaker crude and the Indian diesel tender result knocked almost one dollar per barrel of swaps values in Singapore.