Asian naphtha crack rises on firm demand

Asia's naphtha crack rose to a five-session high of $92.70 a tonne on Wednesday on the back of firm demand. Taiwanese Formosa Petrochemical Corp, Asia's top naphtha importer, was seeking cargoes for second-half November delivery to Mailiao. The Philippines JG Summit was looking to lock in naphtha for a 12-month period starting January 2016.
Traders said the Philippines petrochemical maker could be looking to buy at least 25,000 tonnes of naphtha a month for the 12-month period. Tighter supplies from the Middle East and India due to refinery maintenance were also impacting the market slightly and offsetting the higher volumes of Western naphtha streaming into Asia next month. Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has sold 35,000 tonnes of naphtha for November 4-6 loading from Chennai at a premium of $16 a tonne to its own price formula on a free-on-board (FOB) basis. The buyer may have been Japan's Marubeni, traders said. The premium was about $2 a tonne lower when compared to the average premium IOC had fetched for two Chennai cargoes sold for September loading.
Separately, IOC offered up to 20,000 tonnes of naphtha for October 29 to November 3 loading from Kandla through a tender closing on October 16. Traders said IOC has cancelled a tender to sell similar volumes but for October 20-25 loading from the same port. Kuwait Petroleum Corp has sold 24,000 tonnes of light naphtha for November 2-3 loading.
Results were not immediately clear but traders estimated the premium of the cargo to be around $11 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a FOB basis. Japan's Cosmo Oil Co has restarted its 100,000-barrels per day (bpd) crude distillation unit (CDU) at the Sakai refinery in western Japan on Monday after scheduled maintenance which started on August 23.
GASOLINE FIRMS Asia's gasoline crack rose to a six-session high of $12.26 a barrel, held up by weaker oil prices and improved fundamentals in the United States. Gasoline stocks in the US are forecast to have fallen by 1.3 million barrels in the week to October 9, an extended Reuters survey showed.