Asia Naphtha/Gasoline-Naphtha crack hits 9-month high

• Asia's naphtha crack rose for a fifth straight session to touch a nine-month high of $66.40 a tonne on Wednesday.
• Naphtha sold from India this week remained at high premium levels.

SINGAPORE: Asia's naphtha crack rose for a fifth straight session to touch a nine-month high of $66.40 a tonne on Wednesday, supported by strong demand for spot cargoes following attacks on Saudi oil facilities on Sept. 14.

Naphtha sold from India this week remained at high premium levels.

Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) for instance sold two cargoes for second-half October loading from Vizag this week at premiums in the high $20s a tonne to its own price formula on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.

One of the cargoes was sold to BP and another to a Western trading house.

The fresh premiums were up from the low $20s a tonne premium it had previously fetched from Aramco Trading following the attacks.

The current premiums are also the highest HPCL had fetched since 2015 for naphtha sold out of Vizag, Reuters data showed.

HPCL has an outstanding tender to sell a cargo out of Mumbai for Oct. 20-22 loading.

IOC is also looking to sell a total of 70,000 tonnes of naphtha this week.

India's October shipment at more than 420,000 tonnes so far have surpassed its September exports but are well below August's volumes at 680,000 tonnes.

GASOLINE: Asia's gasoline profit margin was at 1-1/2 week high of $8.57 a barrel, supported by brisk cash deals.

A total of nine deals changed hands, the highest number of trades concluded in a single session since Sept. 11.