Asia's gasoline crack hit a fresh six-month high on Friday as steady demand, shrinking US inventories and supply cuts due to refinery turnarounds in key producing regions of Asia continued to support sentiment, trade sources said. The crack rose to $7.68 a barrel, its highest since Oct. 2, from $7.15 a barrel in the previous session and $1.80 a barrel at the start of the month. Weaker crude oil prices on Friday also helped lift gasoline cracks higher.
Oil fell further from 2019 highs, but was set for a third straight week of gains due to supply cuts led by producer club Opec and US sanctions on Iran and Venezuela. South Korea's Lotte Chemical bought three cargoes of open-spec naphtha with minimum 70 percent paraffin content, each totalling 25,000 tonnes, for delivery into Yeosu and Daesan in May at a $6 per tonne premium on a CFR basis from unknown suppliers.
South Korea's LG Chem is seeking a cargo of open spec naphtha with minimum 70 percent paraffin content for delivery into Yeosu in May. The tender closes on March 22. Thailand's PTT has offered 15,000 tonnes of 101 RON reformate loading April 15-17 from Map Ta Phut in a tender closing on March 25 with same day validity.
China's CNOOC sold 36,000-38,000 tonnes of 92 RON gasoline loading on April 18-19 from Huizhou Dagang to an unknown buyer. Gasoline stocks in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub were virtually unchanged at 1.07 million tonnes in the week to March 21, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global, previously PJK International, showed. ARA naphtha inventories, however, slipped to 256,000 tonnes in the week to March 21, down from 283,000 tonnes the week before, the data showed.
Massive flooding in the US Midwest has knocked out roughly 13 percent of the nation's ethanol production capacity, as plants in Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota have been forced to shut down or scale back production following the devastation.
Comments
Comments are closed.