Asia's naphtha crack extended losses into a third session on Thursday, hitting a 2-1/2-month low of $104.95 a tonne, in a thinly traded market amid higher supplies coming in from the West. Asia's gasoline crack, on the other hand, recovered by 2 percent to reach $7.06 a barrel after dipping to a 15-month low in the previous session. But it was sharply below the year-ago level of $11.02 a barrel as supplies were seen at higher levels.

For instance, Singapore's onshore light distillates stocks, which comprise mostly gasoline and blendstock for petrol, rose 7.1 percent from the previous week to nearly 14 million barrels in the week ended January 3, official data showed. This was about 10 percent lower than the record volume seen on March 2, 2016 at around 15.5 million barrels. Gasoline stocks in the United States were also expected higher.

Analysts polled by Reuters on Wednesday forecast that gasoline stocks in the United States had risen by 2.2 million barrels last week. Cold weather in parts of the United States had dented demand for gasoline. But the chilly temperature also led Phillips 66 to shut a 60,000-bpd crude unit and a 20,000-bpd coker at its Wood River, Illinois, refinery on Friday after a pipeline froze followed by a brief fire.

India's Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) has an outstanding tender to sell a naphtha cargo loading from Kochi. Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp, one of Asia's top eight by capacity, is currently running its 540,000-bpd refinery at about 95 to 96 percent of its capacity. Separately, it has plans to shut a 1.03-million-tonne-per-year (tpy) naphtha cracker for maintenance for about 40-45 days starting in June.

Copyright Reuters, 2018