Asia's naphtha crack eased to a two-session low of $92.88 a tonne on Thursday but the intermonth premium between first-half September and first-half October widened 25 cents to $8.50 a tonne, highest since July 13 due to demand. South Korea's LG Chem and Malaysia-based Titan were seeking naphtha for first-half September delivery.
Titan paid a premium in the mid-to-high single digit level a tonne to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis while LG Chem paid around $9 to $10 a tonne premium, traders said. These could not be directly confirmed as buyers do not comment on their deals but both buyers' premiums were higher versus deals concluded for August.
LG Chem for instance had on June 26 paid a premium of $6 for a first-half August cargo while Titan had forked out premiums in the low single digit level a tonne for a mid-August cargo. Indian Oil Corp (IOC) sold 35,000 tonnes of naphtha for Aug. 7-9 loading from Chennai on Wednesday at premiums of about $24.50 a tonne to its own price formula on a free-on-board (FOB) basis. Asia's gasoline crack was at a three-session high of $5.75 a barrel as a drawdown on US stocks gave the market some support.
US gasoline stocks fell by 3.2 million barrels last week, US Energy Information Administration data showed, sharply lower versus analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a drop of 44,000 barrels. Japan's gasoline stocks in contrast rose 510,000 barrels to a two-week high of 9.67 million barrels in the week to July 14, official data showed.
Light distillates stocks, which comprise mostly gasoline and blending components for petrol, held in Singapore was also up and hit a six-week high of 13.88 million barrels in the week to July 18, official data showed. Venezuela's 645,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Amuay refinery has halted its distillation unit No. 5, a refinery worker and a union leader said. Saudi Aramco said via Twitter a small fire at one of its storage containers at its Riyadh refinery has been contained.