Asia’s naphtha market price structure widened in backwardation to $3.50 per ton on Thursday and the price for first-half September cargo rose for a second consecutive session.
The crack for naphtha was little changed at about $64 per metric ton over Brent crude.
The gasoline crack rose to $7.92 per barrel over Brent crude on Thursday, compared with $7.28 a day earlier. A deal for benchmark-grade gasoline emerged after a gap of four trading sessions, market participants said.
Meanwhile, U.S. gasoline stocks (USOILG=ECI) fell by 2.7 million barrels in the week to 228.4 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations for a 600,000-barrel draw.
Singapore light distillate inventories declined to a two-week low of 12.748 million barrels in the week to July 30, Enterprise Singapore data showed.
NEWS
– Indian state refiners have stopped buying Russian oil in the past week as discounts narrowed this month and U.S. President Donald Trump warned against purchasing oil from Moscow, industry sources said.
– Shell’s second-quarter net profit tumbled by almost a third on Thursday, dragged down by a drop in oil prices, lower gas trading results and outage-related losses from its chemicals operations, but it still easily beat analysts’ forecasts.
– Asia is expected to step up imports of U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude in the fourth quarter after Middle East oil prices strengthened and opened the arbitrage window, trade sources said.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
One naphtha trade and one gasoline deal.
Source: Reuters