NEW DELHI: Asia’s naphtha market weakened on Tuesday due to dwindling feedstock demand from petrochemical units, although market watchers expect a robust gasoline complex to attract the light fuel to blending pool.
The refining margin for naphtha plunged to $101.53 a tonne, the lowest since June 2021, from $128.43 in the last session. Gasoline margin eased to $16.47 a barrel, down $1.77 from Monday.
At the Singapore trading window, Glencore and Trafigura snapped up a total of 100,000 tonnes of naphtha. Unipec and Vitol purchased a cargo each of the benchmark 92-octane grade gasoline.
“Naphtha feedstock demand is expected to face further headwinds as thinning margins have prompted some petrochemical producers to reduce operating rates again,” Refinitiv Oil Research said in a note.
OPEC+ produced 1.45 mln barrels per day (bpd) below its production targets in March, as Russian output began to decline following sanctions imposed by the West, a report from the producer alliance seen by Reuters showed.
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