Asia’s naphtha refining profit margin gained on Monday after weakness in crude oil prices dragged down prices for the light distillate.

The crack rose to $66.20 per metric ton over Brent crude, compared with $64.78 on Friday in a steady backwardation of $5 per ton. Naphtha margin posted gains of 2.6% last week.

Price of both first-half September and first-half October naphtha cargoes plunged by about $14 to $689 and $684 per ton, respectively.

Traders and analysts said South Korean operators are planning to cut utilisation rates in the coming weeks.

“The market seems to expect some downward pressures on naphtha – especially with downside risks to overall cracker utilization in the coming month or so,” energy consultancy FGE said in a note.

Meanwhile, a tanker that was involved in a collision near Singapore last week entered the area of Malaysia’s Bertam floating oil terminal on Monday morning after it was intercepted by local authorities on Sunday, shipping data from LSEG and Kpler showed.

NEWS
– Russia has held discussions with Havana about the construction of an oil refinery in Cuba together with Russian companies, the TASS news agency cited a senior Russian lawmaker, Alexander Babakov, as saying.

– Australia’s Woodside Energy said it had agreed to buy U.S. liquefied natural gas developer Tellurian, including its U.S. Gulf Coast Driftwood LNG export project, for $1.2 billion including debt.

– Bharat Petroleum Corp, India’s third-biggest refiner, expects Middle Eastern producers to cut the official selling prices (OSPs) of their crude in coming months to reflect lower margins on fuel sales, its head of finance said on Saturday.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Mohi Narayan; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)