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Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Hedging Diesel Price Risk: Low-Sulphur Gasoil (LSGO) Hedging Report

By Century Financial in 'Investment Insights'

Hedging Diesel Price Risk: Low-Sulphur Gasoil...
Hedging Diesel Price Risk- Low-Sulphur Gasoil (LSGO) Hedging Report

What Is Low Sulphur Gasoil (LSGO)?

Overview
  • LSGO is a refined petroleum product widely recognised as standard diesel, processed to meet low-sulphur environmental standards.
  • It is used across transportation, logistics, industrial operations, and heating.
  • LSGO prices generally track crude oil but are also affected by real-world supply and demand.
  • ICE Futures Europe contracts on LSGO serve as a widely used benchmark for diesel pricing.

Current Market Context (April 2026)

Market Update
Supply Disruptions
  • Military conflict involving the US, Israel, and Iran (from 28 February 2026) led to restrictions on Strait of Hormuz transit — a key route for approximately 20 million barrels per day of crude and refined products.
  • Gulf producers have cut output by at least 10 mb/d; more than 3 mb/d of regional refining capacity is offline.
  • Europe sourced 43% of its gasoil from the Middle East in H1 2025 — that supply channel is now severely constrained.
Prior Structural Vulnerabilities
  • The EU ban on Russian diesel imports (2022) already required Europe to restructure its distillate supply chain, leaving Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) inventories below seasonal norms.
  • This pre-existing exposure has compounded the impact of current disruptions.
Volatility Indicators — as of 10 April 2026
Current LSGO Price
$1,320.25
per metric tonne
3-Month Implied Volatility
56.53%
Surged from mid-30s to ~75 following Strait closure in late February 2026
360-Day Historical Vol
41.41%
±28% price range implied; ~$140,000 swing on $500,000 exposure

How Price Risk Hedging Works — Illustrative Mechanics

Illustrative Only
The following outlines, in general terms, how futures contracts can be used to offset price exposure for physical LSGO positions. All examples are illustrative only.
Exporter
LSGO Exporter — holds physical cargo, exposed to falling prices
Short Futures Strategy
  • An exporter who holds physical LSGO cargo is financially exposed to price declines between the time of purchase and the time of sale.
  • A short futures position — selling LSGO futures — can potentially offset this exposure. If the physical price falls, the futures position gains. On the other hand, if the physical price rises, the futures position loses, but the physical cargo sells for more.
Position Exposure Current Price Units 3-Month Ahead P&L
Scenario A — LSGO price falls 10%
Physical Cargo
(ICE Exchange)
$500,000 $1,180.50 424 $1,062.45 -$50,000
Short Futures
(Century Trader)
$500,000 $1,173.88 426 $1,056.49 +$50,000
Scenario B — LSGO price rises 10%
Physical Cargo
(ICE Exchange)
$500,000 $1,180.50 424 $1,298.55 +$50,000
Short Futures
(Century Trader)
$500,000 $1,173.88 426 $1,291.27 -$50,000

Date – 10 April 2026  ·  Sources: Bloomberg, ICE Exchange, Century Trader Platform

In both scenarios, the net P&L across the combined position is approximately zero. The purpose of the hedge is to stabilise the outcome — not to generate a gain.

Importer
LSGO Importer — forward purchase commitment, exposed to rising prices
Long Futures Strategy
  • An importer committed to buying LSGO in the future is financially exposed to price increases between now and the time of purchase.
  • A long futures position — buying LSGO futures — can offset this exposure. If the physical price rises, the futures position gains, offsetting the higher purchase cost. On the other hand, if prices fall, the futures position loses, but the physical purchase becomes cheaper.
Position Exposure Current Price Units 3-Month Ahead P&L
Scenario A — LSGO price falls 10%
Physical Purchase
(ICE Exchange)
$500,000 $1,180.50 424 $1,062.45 +$50,000
Long Futures
(Century Trader)
$500,000 $1,173.88 426 $1,056.49 -$50,000
Position Exposure Current Price Units 3-Month Ahead P&L
Scenario B — LSGO price rises 10%
Physical Purchase
(ICE Exchange)
$500,000 $1,180.50 424 $1,298.55 -$50,000
Long Futures
(Century Trader)
$500,000 $1,173.88 426 $1,291.27 +$50,000

Date – 10 April 2026  ·  Sources: Bloomberg, ICE Exchange, Century Trader Platform

In both scenarios, the net P&L across the combined position is approximately zero.


2 Year Correlation Matrix For Low Sulphur Gas Oil and Brent

Instrument Low Sulphur Gas Oil Brent
Low Sulphur Gas Oil 1 0.738
Brent 0.738 1

Source: Bloomberg

Date: 10th April, 2026

Risks and Assumptions related to Back-tested trading strategies
The risks and assumptions listed here are not intended to be an exhaustive summary of all the risks and assumptions involved.
The strategy might suffer from look-ahead bias which occurs due to the use of information or data in a study or simulation that would not have been known or available during the period being analyzed. This can lead to inaccurate results in the study or simulation.
Future price movements may not be exactly the same as the historical price movements and this could lead to variation in performance.
Testing can sometimes lead to over-optimization. This is a condition where performance results are tuned so high to the past they are no longer as accurate in the future.
The model assumes no slippages in trading. Slippage refers to the difference between the expected price of a trade and the price at which the trade is actually executed.
The back-tested strategy might be at risk of data dredging, which is the behavior of testing multiple hypotheses at one time, resulting in picking the data that best supports your main hypothesis.
Drawdowns in actual trading can be higher than the tested system and losses could be significant in the event of leverage.
Unforeseen events can lead to variation in performance from the tested trading strategy.
The tested result has been computed with price feeds available from Bloomberg.
The testing environment has not considered transaction or any other costs.
Trading indicators used for the purpose of testing has been provided by Bloomberg.
The strategy might suffer from data mining fallacy, selection bias and backfill bias.
A trading strategy that performs well on multiple datasets from one market (e.g., forex) might not perform as well in another market (e.g., stocks).
The strategy may not depict accuracy in terms of spread changes due to the spread-widening events.

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