SINGAPORE: Asia's naphtha crack dipped on Wednesday with the month's trading cycle coming to a close after two cracker operators bought cargoes for first-half September delivery at higher premiums, traders said. South Korea's YNCC has bought three naphtha cargoes of minimum 75% paraffin content at $12 a barrel above Japan quotes, they said.
Japan's Mitsui Chemicals also purchased naphtha with minimum 78% paraffin content at $16-$17 a barrel above Japan quotes, they added. Indian Oil Corp (IOC) sold 35,000 tonnes of naphtha loading on Aug. 21-23 from Chennai to SOCAR at $28.20 a tonne above its price formula, traders said.
Asia's gasoline margin edged up on Wednesday as firm summer demand continued to support. However, the summer rebound in global fuel demand could be turning into a slowdown, as analysts expect gasoline consumption to taper off due to resurgent coronavirus cases and structural changes in commuting patterns. Countries in Asia are restricting movements again, affecting travel patterns. Indonesia, Asia's top importer of gasoline, is grappling with the worst coronavirus outbreak in Asia.
The latest update of aggregated travel patterns Google collected from its users' phones showed retail and recreation visits fell from June 10 to July 22 by 21% in Indonesia and travel to work fell by 33%. Several other countries are dealing with outbreaks, including Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia. Light distillates stocks at Fujairah Oil Industry Zone rose for the first time in four weeks, up 454,000 barrels to 7.079 million barrels for the week ended July 26, according to industry information service S&P Global Platts.
Japan's gasoline stocks fell while naphtha inventories rose in the week to July 24, statistics released by the Petroleum Association of Japan (PAJ) showed.
US crude oil, gasoline and distillate inventories fell last week, according to two market sources, citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday. One naphtha deal and three gasoline trades. Hengli Petrochemical Co. Ltd, one of China's largest independent refiners and petrochemicals producers, denied on Tuesday a state-run media outlet's report that it had evaded paying tax of about $2 billion by under-reporting output of refined products.
US oil refiners are set to post their first quarterly profit since the COVID-19 pandemic, even though higher oil prices and weaker margins in June have tamed analysts' optimism fostered by the rebound in fuel demand.
US independent shale producer Pioneer Natural Resources on Tuesday warned it would be hit by a $832 million second-quarter loss on oil and gas derivatives. A Dutch court has ruled a half-billion-dollar stake in the Portuguese oil company Galp linked to Angolan ex-first daughter Isabel Dos Santos must be handed over to Angola, lawyers for the southwest African country's state oil company said on Tuesday.
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