India's Reliance Industries sold 55,000 tonnes of naphtha for Sept. 20-22 loading from Sikka to a Western trading house at premiums close to $10 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, industry sources said. They added that the buyer of the cargo was Trafigura but this could not be directly confirmed as sellers and buyers typically do not comment on their deals. Asia's gasoline crack hit a two-week high of $7.04 a barrel on demand and tightening supplies due to refinery maintenance.
Indonesia's Pertamina's September import demand is expected to reach 11 million barrels versus a monthly average of 10 million barrels due to coming maintenance at a gasoline-making unit at its Cilacap refinery next month. It has been buying spot cargoes for September delivery these two weeks at prices ranging from a discount of 50 cents to a small premium a barrel to Singapore quotes on a FOB basis.
Pertamina, Asia's top gasoline importer, is also looking to buy gasoline through a quarterly contract for 88-octane grade scheduled for October to December delivery. Taiwan's CPC will shut a crude distillation unit and a residue fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) for planned maintenance from September to October. South Korea's S-Oil will also be shutting a gasoline-making unit next month. Singapore's light distillate stocks rose 710,000 barrels in the week to Wednesday to reach a seven-week high of 11.272 million barrels, data from Enterprise Singapore showed on Thursday.