Asia’s naphtha margins dipped slightly on Monday to $94.60 per metric ton over Brent crude.

Asia naphtha arrivals could fall to a three-month low of under 6 million metric tons (mt) in September, with the drop mainly driven by a slide in arbitrage inflows and below-average regional supplies, an LSEG report said.

Total naphtha flows into Asia for September have been tentatively projected at 5.5-6 million mt, contracting from the previous month’s close of around 6.1 million mt, the report further added.

Gasoline margins rose on Monday as 150,000 barrels of the 92-octane gasoline exchanged hands at the closing window.

The crack rose to $5.18 per barrel over Brent crude from $3.24 on Friday.

NEWS

Oil futures jumped by about 1% on Monday as a potential hurricane approaching the U.S. Gulf Coast helped oil prices to recover some of the previous week’s heavy losses. Brent crude LCOc1 rose 67 cents to $71.73 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude futures CLc1 were up 68 cents at $68.35.

U.S. oil refiners are expected to have about 311,000 barrels per day (bpd) of capacity offline in the week ending Sept. 13, increasing available refining capacity by 166,000 bpd, research company IIR Energy said on Monday. Offline capacity is expected to rise to 535,000 bpd in the week ending Sept. 20, IIR added.

Global commodity traders Gunvor and Trafigura anticipate oil prices may range between $60 and $70 per barrel due to sluggish demand from China and persistent global oversupply, executives told a conference on Monday.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Haridas; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)