Asia's naphtha cracks fell to a two-and-a-half-week low of $100.50 a tonne on Thursday on strong Brent crude and as slightly more cargoes were seen available for prompt-month loading, trade and industry sources said. "Some traders could be offering more cargoes as flat price is up but not a lot more," said a Singapore-based trader.
Overall, fundamentals are expected to stay strong as supplies are unlikely to inflate in the short term due to firm demand from petrochemical makers. Most petrochemical units are running at high rates to cater to plastics and butadiene demand, although Malaysia-based Titan and Taiwan's CPC are to shut a cracker each for scheduled maintenance this month.
Reliance may have sold 55,000 tonnes of naphtha for end-February loading from Sikka at premiums around $14 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, similar to what it had received from a cargo sold for first-half February-loading. But this could not be directly confirmed as Reliance does not typically comment on its deals or operations.
Separately, Bangladesh Petroleum Corp (BPC) will sell 170,000 barrels of naphtha for loading over February 20-22 to Vitol at a discount of 17 cents to Singapore quotes. The discount was narrower than the $1.63 a barrel discount BPC had received, also from Vitol, for a January cargo. Similar to naphtha, which was weighed down by firm Brent crude, Asia's gasoline crack eased to a two-session low of $11.90 a barrel after hitting a one-year high in the previous session.
Stocks held in Singapore continued to be drawn down. Official data showed that the Island's onshore light distillates stocks fell for the second straight week, this time by 4.2 percent, or 581,000 barrels, to a three-week low of about 13.14 million barrels per day (bpd).