Asia’s naphtha crack falls for third session as buyers switch to LPG

SINGAPORE: Asia’s naphtha fell for a third straight session on Wednesday as petrochemical producers are switching to more affordable liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as feedstock, while concerns about India’s fuel demand weighed on the gasoline market.

Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical issued two tenders seeking to buy LPG for May and for June to December, a trader said.

For gasoline, Formosa Petrochemical sold two 250,000-barrel cargoes of 93-octane gasoline loading on May 17-21 and May 22-26 to Vitol at 60 cents above Singapore quotes, traders said, steady premiums compared with Formosa’s previous tender.

JBC Energy flagged concerns about renewed downtrend in mobility and fuel demand in India and Thailand as COVID-19 cases spike in these countries.

“We currently see global gasoline demand trend flat over April, counter to the usually seen seasonal increase, and any substantial move higher will require a reduction in COVID-19 flare-ups and associated restrictions,” the consultancy said.

“Nevertheless, vaccination efforts are continuing to pick up, with rates in Europe up by around 20% w-o-w.”

The Petroleum Association of Japan (PAJ) said on Wednesday that the country’s naphtha and gasoline stocks rose in the week to April 17.

US gasoline inventories fell by 1.6 million barrels last week, the data showed, according to two market sources, citing American Petroleum Institute figures.

Light distillates stocks fell by 529,000 barrels to 5.482 million barrels at the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone for the week ended April 19, according to industry information service S&P Global Platts.