Asia’s naphtha margins reached a near six-month high on Friday to hit $105.13 per metric ton over Brent crude. It last traded at $106.05 on March 13 earlier this year.
In the gasoline market, no deals were concluded at the end of closing on Friday. The crack fell to a week’s low of $3.75 per barrel above Brent crude, from $4.70 on Thursday. It last hit $3.24 on Sept. 6.
Gasoline exports is expected to remain capped going forward as refineries are likely to still prioritise jet fuel production and exports amid continued strong recovery in the aviation sector, while Chinese domestic demand for gasoline should rise with the upcoming Mid-Autumn festival and Golden Week holidays, an LSEG report said.
Supplies from India to Africa appears to be diminishing as Nigeria’s 650,000-barrels per day Dangote oil refinery started supplying the domestic market with gasoline from this month, with initial supply at 25 million litres daily and increasing to 30 million litres from October. This could further pressure margins in Asia as swing barrels from India could be prompted to head towards Asia instead, the report added.
Traders believe the upcoming maintenance season and the refining cuts in response to slimming margins could relatively stabilise the margins in the short term, which could potentially cap further downside to price benchmarks.
NEWS
Oil prices extended their rally on Friday and were on course for a weekly gain, sparked by output disruption in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Francine forced the evacuation of production platforms. Brent crude futures LCOc1 rose 38 cents to $72.35 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures CLc1 rose 40 cents to $69.37.
Russia’s offline primary oil refining capacity in September is set to jump 34% from August, owing to technical outages, Ukrainian drone attacks and seasonal maintenance, according to Reuters calculations based on data from industry sources.
INVENTORIES
Gasoline stocks at the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub fell by about 6% on the week ending Sept.12 to 918,000 tons as exports flowed on the transatlantic route and as blending activity slowed, Insights Global’s Lars van Wageningen said.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Haridas; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)