Asia’s naphtha markets gained steam on Thursday after a second export-oriented oil facility in Russia was hit by a fire, giving rise to supply disruption fears, market players said.

However, the fire at a Rosneft-owned oil refinery in the southern Russian town of Tuapse overnight has been extinguished, local officials said.

The 12-million-metric-tons plant produces naphtha, fuel oil, vacuum gasoil and high-sulphur diesel.

The refining margin for naphtha jumped to $100.63 per ton over Brent crude on Thursday in a steady backwardation structure, compared with $88.57 per ton a day earlier.

The price for first-half March naphtha also rose by $17 to $704 per ton, LSEG data showed.

INVENTORIES

Singapore light distillate stocks rose by 638,000 barrels to a one-month high of 13.074 million barrels in the week to Jan. 24, government data showed. There were no arrivals of naphtha from Russia this week into the strait, the data showed.

U.S. gasoline stocks USOILG=ECI rose by 4.9 million barrels to 253 million barrels, their highest since February 2021, the Energy Information Administration said, compared with forecasts of a 2.3 million-barrel build. Gasoline product supplied, a proxy for demand, fell last week by 390,000 bpd to 7.9 million bpd, its lowest in a year.​

NEWS

– Russia’s offline primary oil refining capacity is expected to decline significantly in January to 1.188 million metric tons, from 2.098 million tons in December, industry sources said and Reuters calculations showed on Wednesday.

– Asian refiners are selling February-loading gasoil and jet fuel cargoes at their deepest discounts in at least two months as regional freight costs jumped amid persistent Red Sea shipping disruptions, trade sources said on Thursday.

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Source: Reuters (Reporting by Mohi Narayan; Editing by Sohini Goswami)