Asia's gasoline cracks rose 19 percent or 63 cents to reach its highest in a month at $3.96 a barrel as supplies were disrupted in Indonesia. Asia's top gasoline importer shut its 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) secondary gasoline refinery unit at Cilacap due to repairs.
The Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracking (RFCC) unit, which was shut 10 days ago, is expected to resume production within the next 10 days. Although Indonesian gasoline imports have been falling due to increased domestic production, the country remained net short of the fuel. Singapore's onshore inventories of light distillates, which comprise mostly gasoline and blending components for the motor fuel, slipped 1.7 percent or 265,000 barrels to a two-week low of 15 million barrels in the week to August 3, official data showed. Close to 265,000 tonnes of gasoline were shipped to Indonesia from Singapore, the data showed, the highest weekly volume since July 13.
NAPHTHA GAINS Asia's naphtha crack rose 6.2 percent to a three-session high of $27.33 a tonne. The intermonth spread remained at a steep contango of $7. A contango refers to the price of prompt cargoes being cheaper than the following month as supplies are high. The Asian naphtha market has repeatedly come under pressure as supplies kept growing but demand was slower due to cracker maintenance in Japan and Taiwan. India's supplies for August shipment are seen at over 700,000 tonnes, making this the highest monthly volume since September 2013.
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