Asia's naphtha crack edged down but remained near its highest level in more than eight months amid strong petrochemical demand and tighter supply from Europe and India. India's Chennai Petroleum Corp, owned by Indian Oil Corp (IOC), shut its 210,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Manali refinery on Wednesday night due to heavy flooding in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
The shutdown could further tighten naphtha supply to Asia, although it remained unclear how shipments to and from the plant had been affected. Marubeni last month lifted a naphtha cargo from Chennai, although details of subsequent shipments from the plant were also unclear. Naphtha supplies from India were already tighter than usual as more was being blended into gasoline to meet strong demand for the transportation fuel in the country.
Singapore gasoline cracks also remained strong on Thursday at $10.85 a barrel, although falling slightly from the previous session. Lower oil prices have helped boost gasoline demand globally, although the European gasoline market was showing signs of weakness and rising supplies after holding strong for longer than anticipated in recent months. Singapore's gasoline and naphtha stocks fell 598,000 barrels to 12.558 million barrels last week, data from International Enterprise (IE) Singapore showed. Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) offered 35,000 tonnes of naphtha for loading on January 4-6 from New Mangalore in a tender that closes on Monday with bids valid until the following day.
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