Asia's naphtha crack rose for the second day to reach a four-session high of $65.23 a tonne on Thursday, but gasoline crack fell to a two-session low of $6.68 a barrel with higher stockpiles seen. Singapore's onshore light distillates stocks, for instance, rose 2.5%, or 334,000 barrels, to a two-week high of 13.5 million barrels in the week to Wednesday, data from Enterprise Singapore showed.

More gasoline tenders from China emerged as Shandong-based Hongrun returned to the spot market, offering 60,000 tonnes of petrol for March 15-17 loading from Huangdao in a tender closing this week. The independent refiner, unlike CNOOC or WEPEC, does not regularly export gasoline.

CNOOC has offered 36,000-38,000 tonnes of 92-octane grade gasoline for March 30-31 loading from Huizhou Dagang in a tender closing on Friday. On February 18, it sold a cargo for March 20-21 loading from Huizhou Dagang terminal at discounts to Singapore quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, while WEPEC sold a cargo, also for March loading, on Monday.

Consulting firm FGE said in a note that Chinese gasoline exports during March-April could surge while some 700,000 to 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) of gasoline demand has been wiped out in China because of the coronavirus outbreak.

These factors could weigh on the gasoline cracks.

Taiwan's Formosa has sold 250,000 barrels of gasoline for March 27-31 loading at premium levels to Singapore quotes and the buyer could have been Thailand's PTT but this could not be independently verified. Taiwan's CPC had sold two naphtha cargoes for March 1-2 loading from Kaohsiung and March 5-6 loading from Taipei, industry sources said.

But buyer details and prices of the cargoes were not immediately available. CPC does not typically sell naphtha as it is a net importer of the fuel. But maintenance at its crackers could be a reason behind the firm's decision in releasing excess naphtha to the market, industry sources said.