Asia's naphtha crack rose for a second day to reach a six-session high of $71.03 a tonne on Wednesday, supported by recent demand and weaker raw material Brent oil prices. Buyers including Singapore's PCS, South Korea's Lotte Chemical, China's Unipec and Taiwan's Formosa were in talks to buy naphtha under term contracts. Results of the term deals were not immediately clear, but buyers such as PCS were aiming for discounts for a contract running from April 2018 to March 2019.

Separately, Kuwait has sealed its term deals for full-range naphtha and light grade for April 2018 to March 2019 loading with its buyers at $13 and $14.50 a tonne premium to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) respectively. India's Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) sold 35,000 tonnes of naphtha for March 13-15 loading from New Mangalore to Vitol at a premium of about $11.50 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a FOB basis.

This was the lowest premium MRPL has fetched in over five months. Asia's gasoline crack fell to an almost one-month low of $7.57 a barrel as supplies built. Singapore's onshore light distillates stocks, which comprise mostly gasoline and blending components for petrol, edged up by 1 percent or 143,000 barrels to reach a 10-week high of 14.12 million barrels in the week to Feb. 13, official data showed.

Copyright Reuters, 2018