Asian naphtha margins rose to a more than three-week high on Thursday on firm buying interest from South Korean and Japanese companies, trade sources said.
South Korean companies such as SK Energy and LG Chem bought heavy full-range naphtha cargoes for second-half January delivery this week at around $11 a tonne premium to Japan quotes, traders said, although the level could not immediately be confirmed.
India's Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) sold 30,000 tonnes of naphtha for Dec. 18-20 loading to Idemitsu at a premium of $14 to $15 a tonne above the average of Argus and Platts quotes, industry sources said.
Singapore onshore light distillates stocks, which typically mainly comprise gasoline, jumped by 35 percent on week to a 4-month high of 15.133 million barrels in the week to Dec. 6, latest data from International Enterprise Singapore showed.
China nearly doubled its gasoline exports to Singapore from the week before, while India and Japan shipped gasoline after no shipments the previous week, the data showed.
Clearlake, the shipping arm of oil trader Gunvor, is shipping gasoline blend component on the BW Rhine from the Netherlands to Singapore, industry sources said.
The vessel left the Oiltanking Amsterdam terminal after loading the oil product on Nov. 19 and is currently underway in Aden zone, Thomson Reuters shiptracking data showed on Thursday.
It is scheduled to arrive in Singapore on Dec. 20, the data showed.
A recent tender by Ceylon Petroleum Corp seeking 255,000 barrels of 92-octane gasoline and 65,000 barrels of 95-octane gasoline for delivery in mid-January had the lowest offer from Gulf Petrochem, traders said.
Gulf Petrochem put in an offer of $3.33 a barrel for the 92-octane gasoline and $3.28 a barrel for the 95-octane gasoline, one of them said.
Vitol was the only other company that placed an offer for the tender, the trader added.
Egyptian General Petroleum Corp (EGPC) has offered 25,000 tonnes of straight run naphtha for loading from Alexandria port over Jan. 12-14 in a tender that closes on Dec. 12 and valid until December 21.
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