Asia's naphtha crack retreated on Monday to hit a two-session low of $100.38 a tonne after touching a near seven-month high in the previous session. But the current value still reflected a strong market as it was 33 percent higher than the daily average for January to August at $75 a tonne. Demand was firm, with South Korea's KPIC paying a premium of about $3 a tonne to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis.

Indian Oil Corp (IOC) sold 35,000 tonnes of naphtha for September 30 to October 2 loading from Chennai to oil major BP at premiums at about $12 a tonne to its price formula on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, traders said. This however could not be directly confirmed as IOC and BP do not typically comment on their deals.

IOC had previously sold similar volumes to Vitol, but for September 15-17 loading from the same port at premiums of above $9 a tonne to its price formula on a FOB basis. Asia's gasoline crack was at a three-session high of $13.90 a barrel on tighter supplies as cargoes from Singapore had recently been shipped to Mexico and Iran to meet demand. Supply disruption in South Korea persisted as GS Caltex, South Korea's second-largest oil refiner, has not restarted a hydrocracker and aromatics unit after they were hit by fire last month. Gold Sachs said in a note that storm Irma, which took aim at heavily populated areas of central Florida after making landfall on Sunday, would affect oil demand but not oil production or processing.

Copyright Reuters, 2017