Asia's naphtha crack eased for the third straight session to a near two-week low, as abundant regional supplies weighed, traders said on Monday. The naphtha crack against Brent crude stood at $128.85 a tonne, down $4.05 a tonne, Reuters data showed. "Naphtha going forward will be rangebound, with some bearish tendency," said a Singapore-based trader.
Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd cancelled its latest tender offering up to 20,000 tonnes of naphtha for loading in June 15-16 due to unattractive bids, trade sources said. "The cargo offered was too prompt, and it may be better to hold it back as the economics (bids submitted) were not great," said an South Asia-based source.
India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation sold 35,000 tonnes of naphtha for loading over July 5-6 from Hazira to Marubeni at a premium of $30 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, traders said. This was almost 20 percent lower than ONGC's last sale of a similar cargo to the same company at a premium of $37 a tonne to Middle East quotes, FOB.
ONGC's subsidiary, Mangalore Refinery Petrochemicals Ltd sold 35,000 tonnes of naphtha for July 6-8 loading to Idemitsu at a premium of $35 a tonne to Middle East quotes, FOB, traders said. Reliance offered 55,000 tonnes of naphtha for loading over July 19-23 from Sikka in a tender that closed today. There were no deals concluded during cash trading.
US company Castleton Commodities International LLC (CCI) is expanding its oil product trading in Asia to include naphtha, market sources said. A string of firms have either expanded or started naphtha trading operations in Singapore in recent years, as the region looks to plug a supply gap with shipments from Europe and the Mediterranean.

Copyright Reuters, 2014

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