Asia's naphtha crack rose marginally from a two-week low to a two-session high on Thursday to reach $76.68 a tonne, tracking gasoline's gains which were supported by demand. Naphtha fundamentals, unlike gasoline, were however showing signs of weakness as supplies were ample, traders said.
India's Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) for example, sold 33,000 tonnes of naphtha for December 8-10 loading from Mumbai to Petro-Diamond at a premium of about $9 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis. This was lower compared with a previous deal between BPCL and buyer Marubeni for a cargo loading from the same port on November 29 to December 1 at about $13 a tonne premium. Taiwanese Formosa Petrochemical, Asia's top naphtha importer, has an outstanding tender to buy naphtha for first-half January arrival at Mailiao.
GASOLINE HIGHER Asia's gasoline crack on the other hand was at a three-week high of $10.14 a barrel. A fire had broken out at a gasoline-making unit at Reliance Industries's 660,000 barrels per day refinery. Although there was no immediate impact on gasoline, as the unit was in maintenance, it was unclear if the fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) would restart as planned.
In Singapore, its onshore light distillates stocks edged up by 3.3 percent to a one-month high of 11.7 million barrels in the week to November 23, official data showed. Despite the increase, this was more than 10 percent lower than volumes from a year ago at 13.2 million barrels. Unipec was looking to sell up to 2.7 million barrels of gasoline from Yasref refinery in Yanbu in a contract spanning from January to June 2017, making this its first term deal when sealed, traders said. The sales tender, which closes on December 2, stated that the buyer is to bid for 2-3 cargoes per quarter, with each cargo at 450,000 barrels.
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