Asian naphtha crack recovers

The Asian naphtha crack recovered some of the losses chalked up over the last four sessions to reach $83.73 a tonne on Wednesday, but traders looked past the marginal increase as supplies were high. The spot market was quiet as no open tenders were issued out of South Korea so far this week.
"I did not see any buyers coming out to seek cargoes through tenders. Buyers' inventories are high for now," said a Singapore-based industry source.
Aramco Trading Co (ATC) bought 34,500 tonnes of naphtha from India's Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) for September 5-6 lifting from Hazira at about $20 a tonne above Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, a move that surprised traders.
While this is not the first time ATC, the trading arm of Saudi Aramco, has bought a spot naphtha cargo, it was the first time it bought from ONGC.
India's Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) has offered 55,000 tonnes of naphtha for September 23-25 loading from New Mangalore in a tender closing on August 25.
Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) offered two cargoes of naphtha at 35,000 tonnes each for September 17-19 and Sept, 27-29 loading from Mumbai and Kochi respectively through a tender closing on August 24.
Egypt has offered two cargoes totalling 70,000 tonnes, also for September loading, from Suez in a tender due to be awarded on September 3.
MRPL will shut at least 46 percent of its crude processing capacity for about a month from mid-September for planned maintenance.
The refinery has three crude distillation units (CDUs) at its 300,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) coastal refinery in the southern Karnataka state.
GASOLINE
Asia's gasoline crack eased 5 percent or nearly 70 cents to $13.58 a barrel, the lowest since July 2 as demand slowed after peak demand tailed off.
But the average crack value from January to August 19 at $12.80 a barrel is nearly 49 percent higher than the average for the same period in 2014, due to growing demand on a global scale.
Gasoline imports by India, for example, from April to June were at their highest in more than four years, official data showed.