Asian gasoline, naphtha cracks extend gains

Supported by weak crude oil prices, Asia's gasoline and naphtha cracks extended their gains on Thursday but concerns of a persistent supply glut continued to weigh on sentiment, trade sources said. The naphtha crack to Brent crude climbed to a four-week high of $44.53 a tonne, up from $33.70 a tonne on Thursday. On November 12, the naphtha crack hit a more-than two-year low of $9.88 a tonne.
Similarly, the benchmark Singapore 92 RON gasoline crack against Brent crude moved back to a premium of $0.17 a barrel, five session high and up from minus $0.83 a barrel on Thursday. Naphtha inventories held independently at the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub jumped 28 percent to a three-week high of 258,000 tonnes in the week to November 29, data from Dutch consultancy PJK International showed.
The rise came largely on the back of very weak demand, PJK's Lars van Wageningen said. In the week before, ARA naphtha inventories had fallen to a one-year low of 202,000 tonnes. Similarly, ARA gasoline inventories rose 1 percent to a four-week high of 981,000 tonnes in the week to November 29, data from Dutch consultancy PJK International showed.
Gasoline stocks rose marginally, with exports from the region only seen to West Africa. Demand for the motor fuel up the Rhine river was good, van Wageningen said. Compared with year-ago levels, ARA naphtha inventories were 28 percent higher while gasoline stocks were 11 percent higher in the week to November 29.
In Singapore, light distillates inventories climbed close to a four-month high of 14.375 million barrels in the week to November 28, up by 7 percent, or 931,000 barrels, from the week before, official data showed on Thursday. In the United States, weekly gasoline stocks were down 0.764 million barrels at 224.55 million barrels in the week to November 23, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. India's IOC has offered 35,000 tonnes of naphtha loading from Chennai over December 23-25 in a tender closing on December 3 with same day validity.