Asia's naphtha crack edged up 5 cents to reach a two-session high of $49.48 a tonne on Tuesday as oil prices fell. Fundamentals were slightly better than two weeks ago as some of the recent surplus was absorbed by spot demand for cargoes delivering in January. Buyers such as Japan's Idemitsu were now starting to seek cargoes for February delivery.
China's CNOOC was also looking to buy cargoes for February to March delivery but the results were not clear. India's MRPL sold 35,000 tonnes of naphtha for January 6-8 loading late on Monday to Vitol at prices around the mid-teens a tonne to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) level, traders said. This could not be directly confirmed as buyers and sellers do not typically comment on their deals.
MRPL also recently sold a cargo for December 23-25 loading to Vitol in the low single-digit level a tonne to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis. This was the lowest level MRPL had received since it sold a cargo last year for September 2017 loading. Indian Oil Corp (IOC) cancelled a tender to sell up to 30,000 tonnes of naphtha for January 1-3 loading from Kandla, although the reason was not clear. While IOC routinely sells naphtha from Chennai, it has not exported naphtha regularly from Kandla in recent years.
Asia's gasoline crack discounts narrowed to 57 cents a barrel from 76 cents a barrel the previous day. But supplies remained heavy across regions. Analysts estimated stockpiles of gasoline in the US had risen about 1 million barrels last week.
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