ICE Gasoil
ICE Low Sulphur Gasoil futures contract; the primary European middle-distillate futures benchmark traded on the Intercontinental Exchange, used for pricing diesel and heating oil in Northwest Europe.
Last refreshed: 4 June 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Will ICE Gasoil backwardation persist once BP Rotterdam fully restarts?
Timeline for ICE Gasoil
Held structural floor support from the 200kbd unit remaining offline
European Oil Markets: BP Rotterdam half-back, NWE floor holdsHeld near $54/bbl through the prior Brent sell-off, acting as price-discovery instrument
European Oil Markets: Sixth straight draw, flat price muteMentioned in: ARA stocks bottom in a build month
European Oil MarketsEU gasoil imports crash to 695kbd
European Oil MarketsMentioned in: Druzhba south restart hands MOL $40 edge
European Oil Markets- What is ICE Gasoil futures and why does it matter?
- ICE Gasoil is the London-traded benchmark for European distillate markets. It covers 100-tonne lots of gasoil (diesel/heating oil equivalent) and is used by refiners, airlines, and fuel distributors to hedge European diesel and jet fuel price exposure.
- Why are European gasoil prices rising in 2026?
- ARA gasoil stocks fell to 13.56 million barrels in early May 2026 — their lowest since July 2025 — after both BP Rotterdam crude units went offline simultaneously, removing ~400,000 bpd of NWE refining capacity and tightening the ARA distillate market.Source: Lowdown european-oil-markets
- What does ICE Gasoil backwardation mean?
- Backwardation (front-month ICE Gasoil priced above later months) signals that the physical distillate market is tight right now. It incentivises immediate delivery over storage and indicates refinery runs or stock draws are creating near-term supply pressure.
- How is ICE Gasoil connected to Brent crude prices?
- The ICE Gasoil crack spread measures gasoil's premium over Brent Crude and is the standard European refining margin proxy. A wider crack means higher refinery profitability on distillate output relative to crude input costs.
- Why did the ICE Gasoil crack spread stay high even as Brent fell in May 2026?
- The ICE Gasoil crack held near $54/BBL despite a $14 fall in Brent because physical ARA distillate stocks were at 12-year lows. BP Rotterdam had both crude units offline, removing domestic cracking capacity at the same time EU gasoil imports from the Gulf collapsed 38% due to Hormuz disruption.Source: European Oil Markets briefing
Background
ICE Gasoil is the primary exchange-traded benchmark for European distillate markets, listed on ICE Futures Europe in London. Each contract covers 100 tonnes of gasoil (broadly equivalent to diesel and heating oil), and the front-month (M1) contract is the standard hedging instrument for European refiners, fuel distributors, and airlines managing jet fuel price risk. The contract settles against the Platts CIF NWE 10ppm sulphur diesel assessment, linking it directly to physical ARA market conditions.
The prompt structure (M1, M2, M3) reflects the European distillate forward curve. Backwardation, where M1 is above M2, signals tightness in physical supply; contango, where M2 is above M1, indicates ample stock. ICE Gasoil crack spreads, the margin above Brent Crude, are the principal proxy for European refining profitability. ESMA publishes weekly MiFID II position data for the contract, covering EU-regulated firms; the CFTC does not publish an equivalent for ICE Gasoil, making ESMA the sole public positioning source for the European gasoil contract.
In the european-oil-markets series, ICE Gasoil has been the structural tightness indicator throughout the Hormuz-disruption and BP Rotterdam outage period. With BP Rotterdam running zero throughput from both 200kbd units through May 2026, and EU gasoil imports running at 695kbd in April (down 38% month-on-month, the lowest since Argus tracking began in 2016), the ICE Gasoil crack held near $54/BBL even as Brent fell $14, mechanically widening the refining margin for operating complex refiners.
ARA total oil product stocks hit their lowest level since November 2014 in the week ending 28 May 2026. ICE Gasoil backwardation persisted through the period, with the crack remaining above $50/BBL as domestic cracking capacity withdrew at the exact moment the import channel closed. In Update #5 (4 June), BP Rotterdam's partial restart of one 200kbd unit provided directional support for a stock rebuild, but the second unit has no confirmed restart date, leaving both the ICE Gasoil prompt structure and European distillate margins contingent on the second restart timeline.