Asia's naphtha falls to 1-1/2-week low

Asia's naphtha crack edged down to a 1-1/2-week low of $85.63 a tonne on Tuesday, as high volumes of cargoes expected to arrive this month from the West are likely to offset some of the supply loss from refinery maintenance in the Middle East.

The amount of naphtha coming to Asia from the West, including Europe and the Mediterranean, in January is projected at multi-year highs of up to 2.4 million tonnes, an increase of over 40% from December, data from the Oil Research and Forecast team in Refinitiv showed.

"The heavier-than-usual inflows from the West have helped to compensate for the slight decline in arrivals from the Middle East and boosted overall volumes to its highest since November 2018", said its senior analyst Krystal Chung in a weekly note.

Thai Oil has inked its sales tender for catalytic cracker gasoline (CCG) scheduled for April-December loading from Sriracha at premiums of about $1.50 a barrel to Singapore 95-octane grade quotes.

The refiner had offered 2-4 cargoes of the fuel for the entire term, with each cargo at 180,000 barrels.

Malaysia-based Hengyuan has also sold two small parcels of CCG at 12,000 tonnes per cargo for February lifting from Port Dickson at a discount of $1.50 a barrel to Singapore 92-octane grade quotes, industry sources said.

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