The Asian naphtha margin rose on Thursday on firm demand from Japanese and South Korean petrochemical makers, trade sources said. Indonesia's state-owned Pertamina is seeking 680,000 barrels of 88-octane gasoline for January, a tender document showed.
The cargoes are loading from Singapore or Malaysia and the tender closes on December 15 and are valid until December 19. It is also seeking two cargoes of 92-octane gasoline totalling 200,000 barrels for loading in January through a separate tender that closes on Dec. 18 and valid until December 20.
Spot requirements from Asia's largest importer of gasoline typically boost profit margins for the fuel, traders said. Singapore onshore stocks of light distillates which typically mainly comprise of gasoline, fell by 9.6 percent to a two-week low of 13.673 million barrels in the week to Dec. 13, latest data from International Enterprise showed.
Gasoline shipments from China to Singapore more than halved from the previous week while there were no exports of the fuel from South Korea and Thailand to Singapore, contributing to the drawdown in stocks, the data showed. China's CNOOC has offered 37,000 to 39,000 tonnes of 92-octane gasoline for loading over January 9 to 10.