SINGAPORE, May 23 (Reuters) - The Asian naphtha price ended the week at a five-session low
of $859 a tonne, while its margin reversed losses from the previous session to rise to $99.03 a
tonne, supported by gasoline.
Naphtha can be reformed into gasoline or be used as a gasoline blendstock.
"The rally on naphtha today was a bit odd as there are a lot of barrels around. But
generally, the naphtha (value) seems to be in a tight range and was up today due to gasoline
being firmer," a trader said.
But naphtha spot premiums were falling.
South Korea's S-Oil for instance sold 33,000 tonnes of spot naphtha for June 23-27 loading
from Onsan to Itochu, with the premium estimated to be around $10.50 a tonne to Japan quotes on
a free-on-board (FOB) basis.
This reflected a drop of 79 percent in premiums when compared with S-Oil's sale of an April
cargo, also to Itochu. It was unclear whether S-Oil has sold any spot lots for
May lifting.
Premiums also fell for Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) in the sale of 24,000 tonnes of light
naphtha for June 29-30 loading at a premium below $35 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a
free-on-board (FOB) basis to an unidentified North Asian trader.
This was down by at least 20 percent by comparison with a cargo KPC sold to Glencore for
end-May loading.
GASOLINE CRACK JUMP
The Asian gasoline margin jumped nearly 21 percent to a 1-1/2 month high of $10.52 a barrel,
driven by India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
Pakistan is seeking a total of 300,000 tonnes of gasoline for July-to-September arrival at
Karachi in a tender closing on June 10, with offers to stay valid until June 18.
India in the meantime is grappling with tighter supplies as summer demand has coincided with
an outage at HPCL's Vizag plant and partial maintenance at MRPL.
This could be a reason that IOC and BPCL are seeking up to 41,000 tonnes of gasoline for
June delivery.
* SINGAPORE CASH TRADES: Three gasoline deals but none on naphtha.
- PetroChina sold a 95-octane gasoline cargo for June 12-16 loading to Vitol at $114.20 a
barrel.
- Shell bought two 95-octane gasoline cargoes, one from Phillips 66 at $116.20 a barrel for
June 7-11 loading and another cargo for June 10-14 loading at $115.90 a barrel from Arcadia.
LIGHT DISTILLATES
CASH ($/T) ASIA CLOSE Change % Change Prev RIC
Close
OSN Naphtha CFR Japan M1 859.00 -5.50 -0.64 864.50 (NAF-1H-TYO)
OSN Naphtha CFR Japan M2 846.50 -6.50 -0.76 853.00 (NAF-2H-TYO)
OSN Naphtha Diff 12.50 1.00 8.70 11.50 (NAF-TYO-DIF)
Naphtha Netback FOB Sing 92.97 -0.62 -0.66 93.59 (NAF-SIN)
Naphtha Diff FOB Sing 2.17 0.08 3.83 2.09 (NAF-SIN-DIF)
Naphtha-Brent Crack 99.03 8.45 9.33 90.58 (NAF-SIN-CRK)
Gasoline 97 118.10 0.35 0.30 117.75 (GL97-SIN)
Gasoline 95 115.45 0.15 0.13 115.30 (GL95-SIN)
Gasoline 92 111.85 -0.05 -0.04 111.90 (GL92-SIN)
Gasoline crack 10.52 1.81 20.78 8.71 (GL92-SIN-CRK)
SWAPS ($/T) ASIA CLOSE Change % Change Prev RIC
(0830 GMT) Close
Brent M1 101.38 -1.81 -1.75 103.19
Naphtha CFR Japan M1 842.00 -8.50 -1.00 850.50
Naphtha CFR Japan M1/M2 5.25 0.00 0.00 5.25
Naphtha CFR Japan M2 836.75 -8.50 -1.01 845.25
Naphtha Japan-Sing Netback M1 16.25 -1.75 -9.72 18.00
Naphtha Japan-Sing Netback M2 20.00 -0.40 -1.96 20.40
Naphtha FOB Sing M1 91.75 -0.75 -0.81 92.50
Naphtha FOB Sing M1/M2 1.00 0.15 17.65 0.85
Naphtha FOB Sing M2 90.75 -0.90 -0.98 91.65
Naphtha Cracks M1 -8.41 0.86 -9.28 -9.27
East-West Naphtha M1 19.50 1.00 5.41 18.50
East-West Naphtha M2 19.50 1.75 9.86 17.75
NWE Naphtha M1 822.50 -9.50 -1.14 832.00
NWE Naphtha M1/M2 5.25 0.75 16.67 4.50
NWE Naphtha M2 817.25 -10.25 -1.24 827.50
Crack NWE Naphtha-Brent M1 -10.57 0.68 -6.04 -11.25
Crack NWE Naphtha-Brent M2 -10.92 0.73 -6.27 -11.65
*Sing refers to Singapore
(Reporting by Seng Li Peng; editing by Jane Baird)
