Asia's naphtha crack fell for a fourth straight session to a nearly 2-1/2 month low of $65.90 a tonne on Thursday, weighed down by strong oil prices and expectations of weaker demand ahead due to cracker maintenance in North Asia. Demand was mostly muted from South Korea and demand for June cargoes was seemingly slower than that for May. Spot premiums for cargoes delivering to South Korea in first-half June this week were down compared to cargoes scheduled for second-half May as delivery effects of weaker fundamentals were felt.
India's Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) on Wednesday sold 35,000 tonnes of naphtha for May 1-2 loading from Kochi to Gunvor at premiums of about $23 a tonne to its own price formula on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, traders said. BPCL had previously sold up to 40,000 tonnes of naphtha for April 15-16 loading from the same port at premiums of $24 a tonne on a FOB basis to Japanese Petro-Diamond.
BPCL is planning on starting a trading office in Singapore and operations could begin by September. This would make it the second Indian state refiner after Indian Oil Corp to have an office in the city-state. Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) was seeking 25,000 tonnes of gasoline for May 5-6 loading through a tender closing on April 20. Singapore's onshore light distillates stocks, which comprise mostly gasoline and blending components for the fuel, slipped 1 percent or 143,000 barrels to reach a seven-week low of 13.6 million barrels in the week to April 18, official data showed.
A drawdown in stocks in the US was also seen, with gasoline stocks having dropped last week by 3 million barrels, data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed.