SINGAPORE: Asia's naphtha crack was at a two-session high of $92.43 a tonne on Thursday, which translates to a premium of more than $3 a barrel over Brent crude, supported by strong demand.

This week saw South Korean and Japanese buyers snapping up August-September cargoes.

KPIC was the latest South Korean buyer this week to buy naphtha for second-half August delivery and paid a premium of about $11 to $12 a tonne to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis, but tied to a 45-day pricing formula instead of the usual 30 days, industry sources said.

Strong demand amid tight supplies have kept spot premiums at more than a four-month high.

Asia's gasoline crack also rose and touched a two-week high of $2.79 a barrel over Brent crude, driven by a vibrant cash market recently.

Seven gasoline deals were done, making this the highest number of trades done in a single session since June 5.

However, inventory levels reflected a weak market as high supplies persisted.

The Singapore onshore light distillates inventories for instance rose 9.5% or 1.4 million barrels to reach nearly 16.6 million barrels in the week to July 8, highest since March 20 2019, data from Enterprise Singapore showed.

Cargoes from Europe continued to arrive in Singapore, with the Netherlands having shipped close to 87,000 tonnes while Belgium had moved about 34,000 tonnes to Singapore.

Close to 38,000 tonnes had also arrived in the island from the United States, the data showed.

In contrast, gasoline stocks in the world's top consuming country of the United States fell by 4.8 million barrels, data from the Energy Information Administration showed.

Sinopec's 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) Tianjin refinery has resumed operations after a two-month overhaul, the refinery said in a statement.

The refinery added a 52,000-bpd residue hydrotreating unit and a 56,000-bpd catalytic cracking unit to restructure product output and improve gasoline and jet kerosene yields.