Asia Naphtha/Gasoline — Naphtha price trades above $1,000 for third straight day
NEW DELHI, Oct 15 (Reuters) — Asia's naphtha prices eased slightly but remained firmly above $1,000 per metric ton for a third consecutive session on Thursday as fears of supply disruption from the Gulf persisted. Prices last climbed above $1,000 in July. The refining margin for naphtha rose by about $7 to $239 per ton over Brent crude. The market remained steeply backwardated at $31 a ton. Meanwhile, South Korea's LG Chem restarted its No. 2 naphtha-fed cracker on October 12 after seven months of shutdown due to feedstock supply disruption from the Middle East, it said in an exchange filing earlier this week. However, the company will shut its No. 1 cracker due to planned maintenance. Another South Korean producer YNCC sought two cargoes of naphtha for December delivery, market participants said. In the gasoline market, Indonesia's Pertamina sought about 70,000 barrels of 98-octane grade fuel in a tender, they added. Inventories Singapore's total imports of naphtha fell about 28% on the week to around 173,000 metric tons (1.56 million barrels), as no shipment from Russia arrived in the week to October 14. The top supplier was Kuwait at 56,000 tons. Singapore naphtha exports tanked
NEW DELHI, Oct 15 (Reuters) — Asia's naphtha prices eased slightly but remained firmly above $1,000 per metric ton for a third consecutive session on Thursday as fears of supply disruption from the Gulf persisted. Prices last climbed above $1,000 in July. The refining margin for naphtha rose by about $7 to $239 per ton over Brent crude. The market remained steeply backwardated at $31 a ton.
Meanwhile, South Korea's LG Chem restarted its No. 2 naphtha-fed cracker on October 12 after seven months of shutdown due to feedstock supply disruption from the Middle East, it said in an exchange filing earlier this week. However, the company will shut its No. 1 cracker due to planned maintenance.
Another South Korean producer YNCC sought two cargoes of naphtha for December delivery, market participants said. In the gasoline market, Indonesia's Pertamina sought about 70,000 barrels of 98-octane grade fuel in a tender, they added. Inventories Singapore's total imports of naphtha fell about 28% on the week to around 173,000 metric tons (1.56 million barrels), as no shipment from Russia arrived in the week to October 14. The top supplier was Kuwait at 56,000 tons.
Singapore naphtha exports tanked about 63% on the week to around 37,000 tons. Gasoline imports rose about 11% to 320,000 tons or the equivalent of 2.7 million barrels during the period, while exports were down about 23% on the week at roughly 486,000 tons. News - Oil prices fell by about 2% on Thursday as potential US steps to ease restrictions on Russia's "shadow fleet" tankers soothed price concerns, but attacks on ships in the Middle East and Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure limited the decline.
O/R - China will keep retail gasoline and diesel prices unchanged from October 16, the National Development and Reform Commission said on Thursday in its latest regular price review, citing recent volatility in international oil prices. Singapore Cash Deals O/AS No trades.
Prices CASH ASIA Chan Prev RIC CLOSE ge Close OSN Naphtha CFR 1016.50 -7.5 1024.0 OSN Naphtha CFR 985.50 -7.5 993.00 OSN Naphtha Diff 31.00 0.00 31.00 Naphtha Netback 110.94 -0.8 111.78 Naphtha-Brent 238.90 7.05 231.85 Gasoline 97 138.50 -4.3 142.84 Gasoline 95 137.68 -4.3 142.02 Gasoline 92 132.16 -4.3 136.50 Gasoline crack 28.48 -2.4 30.88 For a list of derivatives prices, including margins, please double click the RICs below.
Brent M1 Naphtha CFR Japan Naphtha CFR Japan Naphtha CFR Japan Naphtha Netback M1 Naphtha Netback M2 Naphtha FOB Sing Naphtha FOB Sing Naphtha FOB Sing Naphtha Cracks M1 East-West Naphtha East-West Naphtha NWE Naphtha M1 NWE Naphtha M1/M2 NWE Naphtha M2 Crack NWE Crack NWE Sing refers to Singapore (Reporting by Mohi Narayan) ((Mohi.Narayan@thomsonreuters.com; )