Asia's naphtha crack ended the month at a two-week low of $48.70 a tonne on the back of muted demand ahead of Labour Day while gasoline fell to a two-session low of $6.66 a barrel. Spot premiums were however comparatively stronger last week versus the week before as reflected in deals in Taiwan and India. Indian Oil Corp, for instance, sold 35,000 tonnes of naphtha for May 18-20 loading from Chennai last Friday to a European trading house at premiums of about $19 a tonne to its own price formula on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.
It had previously sold the same volume but for May 8-10 loading from the same port to Socar at a premium in the mid-to-high teens a tonne level, industry sources said. Analysts estimated that stockpiles of gasoline declined 1.3 million barrels last week. If this projection materialises, it would mean that gasoline inventories in the United States have fallen for 11 consecutive weeks.
Indonesia's state-energy company PT Pertamina said its production of high octane gasoline at its Cilacap refinery would increase to 1.67 million barrels per month this year from a previous rate of 1 million barrels per month. China's Sinopec Corp last week began a major overhaul at its subsidiary 200,000 barrels-per-day refinery Luoyang Petrochemical Corp that will be completed at the end of June, the state refiner said on Tuesday.