Asia’s naphtha market extended gains from last week on Monday on indication of recovering demand amid healthy spot activity in recent weeks, traders and analysts said.

The crack rose to $82.35 per metric ton over Brent crude after gaining about 11% in the previous week. Weakness in crude oil benchmarks also supported the crack.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s state oil producer Aramco left unchanged official selling prices (OSPs) for rival feedstock liquefied petroleum gas in July, while Algeria’s Sonatrach raised OSPs for LPG by 11-18% due to a rising demand from the Mediterranean region, traders said.

Market participants said a South Korean and a Taiwanese buyer sought propane and butane for delivery in August last week, while India’s BPCL sold 35,000 tons of naphtha to Total for loading during July 6-8.

Another Indian refiner MRPL offered reformate for July 27-29 loading in a tender that closes on July 2. MRPL sold mid-July reformate cargo of 35,000 tons to Total, they added.

NEWS

– The Russian government decided to continue with unrestricted gasoline exports in July, extending the waiver for a partial ban on overseas fuel sales, Russia’s energy ministry said on Saturday.

– China is setting up a new entity that groups national oil producers and other state firms to search for ultra-deep oil and gas reserves and tackle harder-to-extract non-conventional resources, state energy group CNPC said on Monday.

– Saudi Arabia’s state oil company Aramco has signed contracts worth more than $25 billion for the second phase of the expansion of its Jafurah gas field and the third phase of expanding its main gas network, its CEO Amin Nasser said on Sunday.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Mohi Narayan)