Earlier the split ran fuel oil up, bitumen down — a clear divergence. Today it flipped: both residue lines ticked higher together, fuel oil at 4,982 yuan per tonne (+0.5%) and bitumen at 4,488 yuan (+0.85%), with bitumen actually outpacing fuel oil on the day.

That synchronized lift reflects independents reallocating residue. Coking margins and bonded bunker-blending margins trade off, and refiners shift residue between the two lines on spot crack. Today's read slightly favors the coker, but bunker-blend inventories are being rebuilt at the same time.

On the listings page, stop using last week's "fuel oil alone is strong" template. Bitumen should be pressured by the off-season for road work, yet bonded bunker restocking and coking margins are holding it up, so the two lines are correlating positively again.

Among the seven re-export grades, the medium-heavy Dubai and Oman carry residue yields tied to this chain. If a cargo lands and is processed domestically, the cost side hinges on the coker-versus-bunker crack, not on Brent alone.