Asia's naphtha crack rose for the third straight session on Thursday to reach $59.43 a tonne, making this the highest front-month value since May 23 as recent strong demand helped soaked up supplies. India's Essar Oil has sold up to 35,000 tonnes of naphtha for June 25-29 loading from Vadinar at a high single-digit premium to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.
This was down from the $13 a tonne it had received previously for a May cargo sold to Trafigura. Indian exports have been higher than expected with the country having shipped a total of about 3 million tonnes for the first four months of this year versus 2.4 million tonnes for the same period last year, official data showed.
Asia's gasoline crack held at $10.69 a barrel, unchanged from the previous session where the value was at a five-week high. Singapore's light distillates stocks, which comprise mostly gasoline and blending components for petrol, fell nearly 6 percent to 11.89 million barrels in the week to May 31, lowest in over six months, official data showed. The fall in stock levels is in line with expectations of lower US gasoline inventories, where an extended Reuters poll showed analysts were anticipating a 1.1 million barrels draw last week.