SINGAPORE: Asia's naphtha crack rose for the fourth straight session on Tuesday to reach $57.29 a tonne, its highest since Sept. 26, supported by expectations of lower supplies ahead.
Cargoes streaming to Asia from Europe and India have been slow, especially from the latter after it had exported more than 900,000 tonnes of naphtha for August, official data showed.
India's October shipments were seen at less than 600,000 tonnes because Indian Oil Corp (DOC) exports from Paradip were mostly absent.
The state-owned refiner was regularly selling at least two cargoes of naphtha from its Paradip refinery between January and September, with the cargo sizes ranging from 18,000 tonnes to 55,000 tonnes.
But the naphtha exports from Paradip were only a temporary measure because of a gasoline-making unit being idle, IOC has said.
Imports from Western countries, including from Europe and the Mediterranean, have been kept below 1 million tonnes since July, against a monthly average of 1.52 million tonne for first half of the year, giving Asia time to digest the glut.
TENDERS: India's Essar Oil has a tender to sell up to 35,000 tonnes of naphtha for Nov. 14-18 lifting from Vadinar.
Traders said that, if a deal was done, the cargo could have been sold above $8 a tonne to Middle East quotes free on board (FOB). This could not be confirmed because Essar Oil does not comment on its deals.
GASOLINE UP
Asia's gasoline crack rose by 2.8 percent to $8.54 a barrel, its highest since Sept. 29, mirroring gains in the West after a string of outages hit refineries on the East Coast of the United States.
Indonesian Pertamina, Asia's top gasoline importer, was seeking a total of three 100,000 barrel cargoes of 92-octane gasoline for November lifting from either Singapore or Malaysia through a tender closing on Oct. 20.
It was also looking to buy 110,000 barrels of 98-octane gasoline for November lifting from Singapore or Malaysia through a tender closing on Oct. 21.
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