Asia's naphtha crack fell to $119.75 a tonne on Thursday, the lowest since November 1, as there could be more supply than was expected despite recent strong demand soaking up cargoes, trade sources said. The build-up in gasoline stock levels in the US had also affected sentiment, a Singapore-based trader said.
Naphtha is used as a feedstock for gasoline and can also be used as a blending component in petrol. Low demand for gasoline means more naphtha can be freed up for sale. Demand for naphtha in Asia however has been persistently strong in recent months.
Taiwan's CPC is now seeking heavy naphtha for February to December 2018 arrival at Kaohsiung through a tender closing on December 6, with offers to stay valid until December 13. It has a spot tender to buy heavy naphtha as well as full-range grade cargoes this week for January arrival but the results were not known. India's Bharat Petroleum Corp issued a tender to sell 30,000 tonnes of naphtha loading from Mumbai on December 18-20 after it cancelled two previous tenders this month to sell naphtha from Mumbai.
The new tender closes on December 4. Asia's gasoline crack fell to a month's low of $9.60 a barrel Singapore's light distillates stocks, which comprise mostly gasoline and blending components for petrol, eased 1.6 percent or 180,000 barrels to reach a three-week low of about 11.2 million barrels in the week to November 29, official data showed.
This contrasted the rise in gasoline stock levels in the US last week. US gasoline inventory levels rose 3.6 million barrels, compared with forecasts for a 1.2 million-barrel gain. Total's 76,000 barrels per day (bpd) gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) at its refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, may resume production as early as Thursday, following a 10-week overhaul.
Comments
Comments are closed.