The heavy-oil chain split tonight. Bitumen closed at 5,366 yuan per tonne, up 3.11% on the day and among the few categories to rally against the tape; fuel oil at 5,391 yuan per tonne actually eased 0.81%. Two ends of the same residue chain moved in opposite directions.

Bitumen's gain rests on end-of-season road-construction demand and regional tightness from localized refinery maintenance; fuel oil's slip reflects slower restocking of bonded bunker blendstock and a rebalancing after inland heavy oil was pressured by soft bitumen expectations. The contest between the two for residue feedstock sets the refiner's next allocation split.

For the refiner, residue is finite. The coker takes a share to make coking feed, and the rest goes into the bonded bunker blend pool. With bitumen firm and fuel oil weak, coking margins look relatively better, so residue tilts toward the coker and the bunker blend pool must be managed more carefully.

This allocation logic rewrites the crack. Tonight bitumen is 5,366 and fuel oil 5,391, with fuel oil ~25 yuan per tonne above bitumen — residue is being repriced between its two outlets. Trading desks running transshipment and bonded business need to put this split into the sensitivity table for arrival margins.