Asia's naphtha crack eased to a two-session low of $77.97 a tonne on Thursday as the price of Brent crude firmed, but fundamentals were comparatively stronger than last week, with persisting demand reflected in the inter-month spreads.
Front-month first-half June naphtha was about $12.25 a tonne higher versus the following month, making this the widest inter-month gap since April 13. Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical emerged to buy open-specification naphtha for first-half June arrival through a tender to be awarded on April 30.
This came days after a string of buyers from South Korea, China, Japan and Malaysia had scooped up June cargoes. Apart from CNOOC, traders said Unipec also bought naphtha this week.
They added that Unipec could have paid premiums in the mid-teen levels to Japan quotes cost and freight (C&F) for naphtha scheduled for June delivery. This could not be confirmed independently because buyers typically do not comment on their deals. India's Reliance sold to Vitol 55,000 tonnes of naphtha for loading at the end of May from Sikka at premiums of $17 to $18 a tonne to Middle East quotes free on board (FOB).
Reliance had previously sold similar volumes to Trafigura for loading in the first half of May from the same port at premiums of $21 a tonne. Vitol also bought a 15,000-tonne cargo from Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONCG) for May 15-18 loading from Kakinada Sea Port at a discount of about $12 a tonne to Middle East quotes FOB.
Asia's gasoline crack was at a four-session low of $6.13 a barrel.
Singapore's onshore light distillates, which comprise mostly gasoline and blending components for petrol, eased by about 3 percent, or 403,000 barrels, to an eight-week low of 13.2 million barrels in the week to April 25, official data showed. By contrast, US gasoline stocks grew by 840,000 barrels, versus forecasts in a Reuters poll for a drop of 625,000 barrels.
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