Asia’s naphtha prices rose for a third straight session on Wednesday amid persisting supply disruption fears due to tensions in the Red Sea and drone attacks on Russian refineries, market players said.

The crack rose by about $5 to $89.53 per metric ton over Brent crude in backwardation structure. The price for second-half March naphtha cargo jumped by $8.50 to $680 per metric ton.

In physical markets, demand for second-half March cargo remained healthy on Wednesday, with energy trader OQ Ltd snapping up 25,000 tons of the cargo, market participants said.

The gasoline crack, on the other hand, was little changed at $14.52 per barrel in the absence of a deal at the window.

INVENTORIES

Light distillate stocks at the Fujairah commercial hub were little changed at about 6.6 million barrels in the week to Feb. 5, S&P Global Commodity Insights data showed.

U.S. gasoline inventories rose by 3.6 million barrels, according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures on Tuesday.

NEWS

– India is expected to be the largest driver of global oil demand growth between 2023 and 2030, narrowly taking the lead from top importer China, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said.

– Australia’s Woodside Energy and Santos said on Wednesday they had ended talks to create a possible A$80 billion ($52 billion) global oil and gas giant, and Santos flagged it would look for other ways to bolster its value.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Mohi Narayan; Editing by Eileen Soreng)