Asia’s naphtha prices shrank by about 5% this week in tandem with weakness in crude oil benchmarks and margin came under pressure from regional shutdowns.
The second-half April naphtha traded at $630 per ton, down about $2.50 from the previous session. The backwardation between second-half April price and second-half May price remained wide at $14.50 a ton.
In purchases, South Korean buyers emerged for April naphtha, market participants said.
In gasoline markets, the crack tumbled by about 23% to $6.98 per barrel over Brent crude this week after a large build up in European inventories.
INVENTORIES
Gasoline stocks independently held in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub rose by 12% on the week to a one-month high of 1.65 million metric tons on Thursday, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.
Naphtha inventories at the ARA hub rose to 392,000 tons in the week to March 6, from 359,000 tons in the prior week.
NEWS
– After a decade of false starts, Indonesia is rolling out a $1.5 billion project to distribute liquefied natural gas (LNG) on a small scale to feed dozens of power plants now running on diesel via a unique hub-and-spoke model across its vast archipelago.
– Indian state refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp plans to float a 4-month tender next week to buy U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday, as it eyes cheaper oil from the world’s top producer.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
Two gasoline trades and one naphtha deal.
Source: Reuters
