Asia's naphtha crack rose for the first time this year, with the value reaching a four-session high of $105.13 a tonne on Tuesday as firm demand and lower-than-usual Middle East exports help offset high incoming Western volumes. Middle Eastern naphtha exports arriving in January in Asia were assessed at a 19-month low of 2.3 million tonnes to 2.4 million tonnes compared with a monthly average of 2.8 million tonnes to 2.9 million tonnes in 2017, assessments by Thomson Reuters Oil Research showed.

Cargoes arriving this month from the West, including Europe and the United States, at up to 2 million tonnes were higher than 2017's monthly average of about 1.2 million tonnes. Demand from petrochemical makers, however, has remained strong as there was still a lack of cheap alternative liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in Asia.

South Korea's GS Caltex was seeking naphtha for February delivery, a day after Hanwha Total had bought some five cargoes totalling an average of 125,000 tonnes, also for February delivery.

Asia's gasoline crack was at a sixth-session high of $7.80 a barrel lifted by strong demand in the Middle East. But gasoline inventories in the United States, where some states had been affected by cold snaps, were expected to have risen last week.

Seven analysts polled ahead of inventory reports from industry group American Petroleum Institute (API) and the US Energy Department's Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated stockpiles of gasoline have risen 2.7 million barrels last week.

Copyright Reuters, 2018