SINGAPORE: Asia's gasoline crack dipped on Thursday after data showed stockpiles hit a two-week high in Singapore. Singapore's light distillates stocks jumped 1.467 million barrels to a two-week high of 13.759 million barrels in the week to July 28, Enterprise Singapore data showed on Thursday.
This was likely due to a drop in exports to other parts of Asia which are battling rising coronavirus cases and extending lockdown measures that hurt mobility and fuel demand. Strong summer travel demand in the United States and Europe continued to underpin global gasoline markets.
US gasoline stocks fell by 2.3 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. This was more than double analysts' forecasts for a 916,000-barrel drop. In naphtha markets, India's HPCL is expected to award a tender later on Thursday to sell 21,000 tonnes of naphtha with minimum paraffin content of 70percent loading from Mumbai on Aug. 9-11.
A trader said Lotte Titan has bought naphtha with minimum paraffin content of 77percent at a premium of about $10 a tonne to Japan quotes for delivery in the first half of September although this could not be independently verified.
Japanese state-backed oil producer Japan Petroleum Exploration Co warned on Thursday of a 90 billion yen ($820 million) loss from exiting its Hangingston oil sands project in Canada, sending its shares down.
US oil output could take more than four years to reach pre-pandemic levels, oil producer Hess Corp said on Wednesday, sticking to its spending plan despite rising demand to focus on shareholders returns over growth.
US crude stockpiles last week fell to their lowest since January 2020 as imports and production dropped, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. LG Chem Ltd, South Korea's top petrochemical maker by capacity, could shut one of its naphtha crackers for maintenance in the second half of the year after successfully ramping up a new plant to full operation this month, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.
"LG Chem is considering to carry out regular maintenance at its Daesan NCC, which has an ethylene capacity of 1.3 million tonnes per year, sometime during the second half of the year," he said.