Asia's naphtha crack edged up to a three-session high of $24.68 a tonne on Monday, while gasoline margin rose to a one-month high of $3.89 a barrel supported by supply disruptions in the US. Gasoline supply from the US East Coast's largest refinery Philadelphia Energy Solutions would be affected following a fire which has completely destroyed its alkylation unit, sources familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

As for naphtha, South Korea's SK Energy bought heavy full-range naphtha for first-half August delivery at premiums in the high single digit a tonne level to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis, industry sources said.

They added that Hanwha Total had also bought heavy full-range grade for the same period delivery last week at close to $8 a tonne premium. India's Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) had on Friday sold 35,000 tonnes of naphtha for July 16-18 loading from New Mangalore to Vitol at premiums close to $14.50 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.

This was more than 50% higher versus premiums MRPL had fetched for a June cargo sold to Shell.

Qatar Petroleum signed an agreement with US company Chevron Phillips Chemical to develop a new petrochemicals complex, which would include an ethane cracker which has an annual capacity of 1.9 million tonnes of ethylene, at Ras Laffan Industrial City.

Copyright Reuters, 2019