Asia's naphtha crack almost reached a 1-1/2 year high of $117.20 a tonne on Tuesday while the inter-month timespread rose above a 6-1/2 year high of $27 on strong demand and supply disruptions.
The Asian naphtha crack is now about 410% higher versus Sept. 13, a day before Saudi oil facilities were attacked.
JBC Energy says 2.4 million barrels of capacity was scheduled to be offline this month in Asia.
Another 700,000 bpd of capacity is expected to be offline in the Middle East, of which some 460,000 bpd includes expected run cuts in Saudi Arabia, the consulting firm said in a note.
The crunch has resulted in spot premiums holding at multi-year highs.
Japan's Idemitsu which recently paid a premium of $30 a tonne to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis for naphtha scheduled for November delivery, is one of the many petrochemical makers hurt by tight supplies.
Between June and first-half September, with the exception of heavy full-range naphtha, prices were mostly in discounts.
Asia's gasoline crack was at a four session high of $9.76 a barrel.
Gasoline cracks, however, did not receive the same level of support as in naphtha but this did not come as a surprise since Saudi Arabia only imports 30-40 kb/d (300,000 to 400,000 barrels per day (bpd)) of gasoline, an Oct. 15 note by FGE said.
However, the consulting firm added that the current gasoline crack was still better than levels seen early this year due to ongoing supply tightness and demand from India and Indonesia.
On Jan. 2 this year, Asia's gasoline crack was only 20 cents a barrel, Reuters data showed.
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