SINGAPORE, May 22 (Reuters) - The Asian gasoline margin reached a 1-1/2 week high of $8.71 a
tonne on Wednesday, supported by tighter supplies in India due to summer holiday demand
coinciding with a refinery outage and maintenance.
India's BPCL is seeking 25,000 tonnes of 91-octane gasoline for delivery into Kochi, located
in the west coast, over first-half of June, making this its first tender in at least a year. The
tender closes on May 27 and is valid until May 28.
IOC is seeking 7,000 to 8,000 tonnes of gasoline for June 12 to 14 arrival at Kochi and
similar volumes for June 14 to 16 arrival at Kandla through a tender which closes on May 28,
with offers valid until May 29.
This is the first time this year that IOC is looking to import gasoline for Kandla, also
located in the western side of India.
These moves come after a fire on May 16 at India's Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd's (HPCL)
Visakhapatnam plant, located in the east coast, prompting it to shut a 60,000 barrels per day
(bpd) crude unit. HPCL aims to restart the unit by the last week of June.
Separately, Mangalore Refinery Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), located in south-west India, is
having a partial maintenance at its 300,000 barrels bpd plant in New Mangalore.
"Everything is coming together," said a trader, referring to the refinery maintenance and
outage that comes at a time when demand is set to rise due to summer school holidays.
NAPHTHA CRACK FALLS
The Asian naphtha price fell to a four-session low of $864.50 a tonne while its margin fell
to a two-session low of $90.58 a tonne due to sufficient stocks.
Also following the fire, HPCL was proposing to cancel up to 30,000 tonnes of naphtha sold to
Vitol on May 7. The shipment was originally scheduled for May 25-27 loading from Vizag. "There
should be plenty of prompt stocks to cover this loss," said a Singapore-based trader.
On tender news, IOC sold 35,000 tonnes of naphtha for first-half June loading from Dahej at
a premium of about $26.30 a tonne to its own formula on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.
The buyer could have been PetroChina although this could not be immediately confirmed.
IOC had previously sold an end-May to early June Dahej cargo to Marubeni at a premium of
about $28.50 a tonne.
In Taiwan, CPC is seeking 30,000 tonnes of heavy naphtha for June 1-25 arrival at Kaohsiung
in a tender closing on May 23.
* SINGAPORE CASH DEALS: Three naphtha deals but none on gasoline.
- Vitol sold a second-half July naphtha cargo to Itochu at $858 a tonne, while BP bought a
second-half July/second-half August spread deal from Mabanaft at $10.50 a tonne and a
second-half July cargo from Socar at $859 a tonne.
LIGHT DISTILLATES
CASH ($/T) ASIA Change % Change Prev RIC
CLOSE Close
OSN Naphtha CFR Japan M1 864.50 -17.50 -1.98 882.00 (NAF-1H-TYO)
OSN Naphtha CFR Japan M2 853.00 -19.00 -2.18 872.00 (NAF-2H-TYO)
OSN Naphtha Diff 11.50 1.50 15.00 10.00 (NAF-TYO-DIF)
Naphtha Netback FOB Sing 93.59 -1.94 -2.03 95.53 (NAF-SIN)
Naphtha Diff FOB Sing 2.09 0.16 8.29 1.93 (NAF-SIN-DIF)
Naphtha-Brent Crack 90.58 -8.72 -8.78 99.30 (NAF-SIN-CRK)
Gasoline 97 117.75 -0.30 -0.25 118.05 (GL97-SIN)
Gasoline 95 115.30 -0.10 -0.09 115.40 (GL95-SIN)
Gasoline 92 111.90 -0.60 -0.53 112.50 (GL92-SIN)
Gasoline crack 8.71 0.57 7.00 8.14 (GL92-SIN-CRK)
SWAPS ($/T) ASIA Change % Change Prev RIC
CLOSE Close
(0830
GMT)
Brent M1 103.19 -1.20 -1.15 104.39
Naphtha CFR Japan M1 850.50 -15.50 -1.79 866.00
Naphtha CFR Japan M1/M2 5.25 -0.25 -4.55 5.50
Naphtha CFR Japan M2 845.25 -15.25 -1.77 860.50
Naphtha Japan-Sing Netback M1 18.00 2.50 16.13 15.50
Naphtha Japan-Sing Netback M2 20.40 3.65 21.79 16.75
Naphtha FOB Sing M1 92.50 -2.00 -2.12 94.50
Naphtha FOB Sing M1/M2 0.85 0.10 13.33 0.75
Naphtha FOB Sing M2 91.65 -2.10 -2.24 93.75
Naphtha Cracks M1 -9.27 -0.49 5.58 -8.78
East-West Naphtha M1 18.50 0.75 4.23 17.75
East-West Naphtha M2 17.75 -0.25 -1.39 18.00
NWE Naphtha M1 832.00 -16.25 -1.92 848.25
NWE Naphtha M1/M2 4.50 -1.25 -21.74 5.75
NWE Naphtha M2 827.50 -15.00 -1.78 842.50
Crack NWE Naphtha-Brent M1 -11.25 -0.47 4.36 -10.78
Crack NWE Naphtha-Brent M2 -11.65 -0.37 3.28 -11.28
*Sing refers to Singapore
(Reporting by Seng Li Peng; editing by James Jukwey)
