Asia’s naphtha refining profit margin extended gains on Thursday as crude oil benchmarks weakened further by about $1 and as arrivals from Russia dropped to zero this week.

The crack jumped by about $5 to $17.05 a metric ton over Brent crude. The backwardation in naphtha markets stood at $2.50 per ton.
In physical markets, there were no deals for naphtha for a third straight day. Energy trader Vitol bought 50,000 barrels of benchmark-grade of gasoline.

The gasoline crack retreated to $11.29 a barrel over Brent crude on Thursday from $13.49 a barrel a day earlier due to a rise in Singapore stocks.

INVENTORIES

Singapore stocks of light distillates rose by 805,000 barrels to a two-week high of 13.138 million barrels in the week to Sept. 20, Enterprise Singapore data showed.

However, Russian naphtha arrivals into Singapore plunged to zero in the week to Wednesday, dragging the total naphtha imports into the city state to 180,170 tons from 252,249 tons in the prior week, the data showed.

U.S. gasoline stocks fell by 0.8 million barrels in the week to 219.5 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 0.3 million-barrel rise.​

NEWS

– Government policies to fight climate change are discouraging oil companies from investing heavily in new production even as they turn in record profits – a dynamic that could spell tight supply and high prices as clean energy alternatives seek to fill the void.

– Russia cut its seaborne diesel and gasoil exports by nearly 30% to about 1.7 million metric tons in the first 20 days of September from the same time in August, as local refineries went into seasonal maintenance and the domestic market faces a fuel shortage and rising prices, traders said and LSEG data showed.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Mohi Narayan; Editing by Maju Samuel)