Asian gasoline crack falls

The Asian gasoline crack slipped marginally to $12.65 a barrel as high Brent crude prices weighed, but demand was brisk in the Singapore cash market.
A total of six deals totalling 300,000 barrels were done, the highest number of cargoes transacted since a year ago when 10 deals were traded on April 17 2014.
Traders said the stronger-than-usual demand was driven by BP, which bought four of the six cargoes. (See cash deals below)
It was unclear where BP would send the cargoes.
ExxonMobil shut its Jurong Island refinery on April 16 for a planned maintenance that would last several weeks, with traders estimating the time frame to be at least four weeks.
"ExxonMobil usually supplies to their own systems and have very few cargoes for sale in the spot market," said a trader who estimated that ExxonMobil sells fewer than three spot cargoes a month.
This however could not be confirmed as ExxonMobil does not comment on its deals.
While ExxonMobil's maintenance was planned, another trader expected the turnaround to tighten supplies nevertheless, mirroring the impact of how supplies were squeezed during the recent refinery maintenance season in Taiwan and South Korea. "This would tighten up regional supplies," he said.
NAPHTHA STAYS FIRM Asia's front-month first-half June premium to first-half July was up 50 cents to $10.50 a tonne on Friday supported by demand, traders said.
Japan's Idemitsu was out in the market seeking naphtha for second-half May delivery to Tokuyama but the results were not known. Throughout this week, several buyers were in the market including Asia's top naphtha importer Formosa Petrochemical Corp.
In total, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan have scooped up more than 300,000 tonnes of naphtha for second-half May delivery between April 13 and April 16.
"Naphtha is still going strong although high Brent crude prices have some impact on the naphtha crack value," said a Singapore-based trader.
Naphtha crack refers to the premium of refining a barrel of crude into the former.