Asia’s naphtha refining profit margin was steady on Thursday even as prices declined, while a trade emerged for a fourth consecutive day this week.

The crack was little changed at $76.30 per metric ton over Brent crude, lingering near the lowest level since April 22.

Traders said license issues at ethane producing U.S. companies could likely trigger switch to naphtha feedstock at some flexible crackers in China.

Meanwhile, Satellite Chemical brought one of its ethane-fed crackers offline for a planned maintenance in the last week of May, sources said.

In the gasoline market, the margin stayed firm at about $10 per barrel despite a rise in Singapore and U.S. inventories. Market participants keenly waited for the outcome of Pertamina’s term tenders.

“Market is looking for clarity on those volumes because it will potentially give a direction to gasoline regional balance in the short term,” a fuel trader said.

INVENTORIES

Singapore light distillate stocks rose by 81,000 barrels to a two-week high of 13.102 million barrels in the week to June 4, Enterprise Singapore data showed.

U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 5.2 million barrels last week to 228.3 million barrels, government data showed, compared with expectations for a 600,000-barrel build.

NEWS

– Asia’s fuel oil imports from Iraq hit a four-month high in May as strong refining margins boosted output and exports from the Middle Eastern supplier, according to trade sources, analysts and data from shipping analytics firm Kpler.

– Oil prices steadied on Thursday after falling more than 1% the previous day because of a build in U.S. gasoline and diesel inventories and cuts to Saudi Arabia’s July prices for Asia.

– Japan’s biggest refiner, Eneos Corp, experienced an unplanned shutdown of the 77,000 barrels-per-day No.3 crude distillation unit at its Kawasaki refinery near Tokyo, starting June 4, a company spokesperson said on Thursday.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

One gasoline deal, one naphtha trade.
Source: Reuters