NEW DELHI: Asia’s naphtha crack came off record levels on Friday amid volatility in crude oil benchmarks, although margins posted weekly gains of nearly 33% over supply disruption fears.
The crack slipped to $225.75 a tonne, down $31.48 from the last close. The inter-month spread between second-half April and second-half May traded in backwardation structure steadily at a record $46.75 per tonne for a second straight day.
Asia, which is structurally short of naphtha, imports about 14% of its total inflow from Russia.
A huge blaze in a building at the site of Europe’s biggest nuclear power station in Ukraine that was seized by Russian forces in heavy fighting, caused global alarm earlier on Friday. The fire was later extinguished and officials said the plant was operating normally.
Naphtha stocks held in independent storage in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage area rose to 279,000 tonnes in the week to Thursday from 149,000 tonnes in the prior week, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.
Gasoline stocks rose 1.3% to 1.21 million tonnes amid a sharp increase in imports.
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