SINGAPORE: Asia's naphtha crack climbed for a sixth consecutive session on Thursday, surging to its strongest level in more than a year, buoyed by firmer petrochemicals demand and expectations for tighter supplies in the near term.
The naphtha crack jumped to $102.33 per tonne on Thursday, its strongest since Dec. 13, 2019. The crack, which has gained 19% in the past week, was at $91.50 a tonne on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Asia's gasoline crack rose to a near three-month high of $3.56 per barrel on Thursday, the last trading day of this year. It was at $3.01 per barrel a day earlier.
Despite an improvement in road fuel demand in recent weeks, market watchers remain concerned that further recovery in gasoline consumption might take a hit as several countries have reimposed mobility restrictions to contain a new mutant variant of the coronavirus.
Fuel consumption in 2021 will be driven by COVID-19 vaccines and their impact on overall economic recovery, analysts said.
The gasoline crack in Singapore has averaged $1.70 per barrel this year, compared with an average of $5.32 per barrel last year.
Singapore's light distillate inventories rose 3% to 13.9 million barrels in the week to Dec. 30, according to Enterprise Singapore data.
Weekly Singapore light distillate inventories have averaged about 14.2 million barrels in 2020, Reuters calculations showed.
US gasoline stocks fell by 1.2 million barrels in the week to Dec. 25, the US Energy Information Administration data showed on Wednesday. This compares with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.7 million-barrel rise.
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