Asia Naphtha/Gasoline-Naphtha down despite buying interest

SINGAPORE: Asia's naphtha crack for first-half January was at a four-session low of $79.70 a tonne on Tuesday, as higher Brent crude prices weighed on the market.

South Korea's LG Chem emerged to buy naphtha from the spot market for first-half January delivery at a $2 a tonne premium to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis, traders said.

They added that the petrochemical maker could have bought two cargoes of the fuel, but this could not be confirmed as buyers and sellers do not comment on their deals.

LG Chem paid parity to a premium of $1 a tonne on Nov. 2 for naphtha scheduled for second-half December delivery.

KPIC on the other hand sealed a $492 million one-year naphtha contract with seller S-Oil Corp for a total of 11 million barrels of the fuel, a statement from the refiner said on Tuesday.

South Korea's third largest refiner said the price was made on Japan quotes on a C&F basis.

"There should be more naphtha in the market next year," said a Singapore-based trader.

Increased capacities from new condensate splitters and crude distillation units would add to current supplies.

OTHER NEWS: Expansion at Indian Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd's (BPCL) Kochi refinery in southern India to about 300,000 bpd from 190,000 bpd would be delayed to early 2017.

The expansion was initially expected to be completed by October.

BPCL also wants to increase the capacity of its 120,000 bpd Bina plant in central India.

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake shook northeast Japan earlier in the day but that did not affect operations at JX's refineries at Sendai, Kashima and Negishi.

In China, PetroChina's Dalian refinery will shut at the end of first quarter 2017 for 45 to 60 days for planned maintenance.