Asia's naphtha cracks was at a one week low of $41 a tonne on Friday while gasoline was at a discount of 65 cents to Brent crude versus a discount of 67 cents the previous day. The light ends fundamentals have been persistently weak due to high supplies, although spot prices for naphtha had recently improved on last month. Buyers have been paying higher prices for spot cargoes on a cost-and-freight basis recently.
Cargoes sold for second-half February to first-half March delivery in Asia were mostly within single-digit premiums to Japan quotes on C&F basis. This was an improvement for sellers versus the discounts they had fetched for cargoes scheduled for second-half November to second-half January delivery. Recent buyers of C&F cargoes for first-half March delivery this week include LG Chem and Maruzen.
India's Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) has sold 35,000 tonnes of naphtha for Feb. 17-19 loading from New Mangalore at premiums around the mid-teens a tonne level to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis. It had previously sold a similar volume but for Feb. 4-6 loading from the same port at premiums of $17 a tonne. Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) had sold 25,000 tonnes of naphtha for Jan. 31 to Feb 2 loading at premiums in the mid-single digit level a tonne to its own price formula on a FOB basis.
Gasoline stock levels across Asia, Europe and the US remain high. Gasoline inventories independently held in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub had risen to 1.37 million tonnes in the week to Thursday, data from Dutch consultancy PJK International showed. This was near the record high levels in late March of 2018.
The data came in the same week as the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed that gasoline stocks in the US Gulf Coast hit 90.96 million barrels, making this a new high for the third consecutive week. Singapore's onshore light distillates stocks in the week ended Wednesday were more than 10 percent higher than a year ago. There would soon be some 235,000 barrels per day of additional gasoline coming on stream from China and Malaysia although not all of it would be exported.
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