Asia's naphtha crack rose for a second session on Monday to reach nearly one month high of $88.05 a tonne, supported by weaker Brent crude and recent demand, although Asia's top naphtha importer bought a lower-than-usual amount. Taiwan's Formosa bought 50,000 tonnes of open-specification naphtha scheduled for first-half June arrival at Mailiao at premiums of up to $7 a tonne to its own price formula on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis.
It has maintenance at its 700,000 tonnes per year (tpy) cracker in June and this could have curbed its demand for naphtha where it usually buys an average of 100,000 tonnes every half month. The fresh premium is lower versus the $11 a tonne premium Formosa had paid on April 10 for cargoes arriving in second-half May.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is expected to set offers for naphtha lifting in a July 2018 to June 2019 contract at sharply higher levels versus an existing 12-month contract that expires in June. ADNOC has its pentane at $27 a tonne to its own price formula on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, low-sulphur (East) grade at $25 and low-sulphur (West) and full-range naphtha grades at $24 each.
Asia's gasoline crack rose to $7.24 a barrel, the highest since April 10. Qatar Petroleum will supply Vietnam's Long Son Petrochemicals up to 2 million tonnes per year of LPG and naphtha for 15 years under an agreement. Kuwait said 5 million litres of gasoline from Vietnam's Nghi Son refinery will go on sale on May 1. Tens of thousands of residents of a northern Wisconsin city were cleared to return to their homes on Friday, a day after 38,000 barrels per day (bpd) Husky Energy Inc refinery explosion injured at least 20 people.
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