Asia's naphtha, gasoline plunge to 2-week low

Asia's naphtha crack plunged 68% on Monday to reach a two-week low of $11.13 a tonne as high volumes of western cargoes weighed while demand could slow this week due to holidays in key importing countries of China, South Korea and Japan.

Cargoes arriving from the West including Europe, the Mediterranean and the United States this month in Asia are expected to surge to 2.7 million tonnes, highest since Refinitive Oil Research and Reuters started tracking the data in 2008.

India's Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd had on May 1 sold reformates for May 5-15 loading from Mumbai to Vitol at premiums of around 50 cents to Singapore 92-octane quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.

Asia's gasoline crack also dived to a two-week low, with its discounts to Brent widening to $4.75 a barrel versus a discount of $1.87 in the previous session.

India exported 820,000 tonnes of naphtha for March shipment, highest since December shipments at 970,000 tonnes, official data showed.

India exported 1.14 million tonnes of gasoline in March, also the highest since December when shipments were at 1.33 million tonnes.

Indian state retailers' gasoline and gasoil sales in April fell by 61% and 57% from a year earlier, two industry sources said, though declines eased slightly later in the month when some transportation and industrial activity resumed.

Gasoline stocks held independently at the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub at 1.2 million tonnes in the week to Thursday was at their highest since March 5, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

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