Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) has pegged offers for naphtha lifting for a one year cotract starting August 2015 at US$15/ton above Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, as per traders in Reuters. This is 48% lower than August 2014 to July 2015 premiums, but nearly double the premiums for a more recent contract from April 2015 to March 2016. Traders said KPC and its Asian buyers, including in Japan and South Korea, could close the deal soon as the buy-sell gap was below US$2.
Naphtha spot prices were recently dragged down in Asia with the advent of a high number of cargoes from Europe and the Mediterranean. Additionally, prices were under further pressure when more than 200,000 tons of alternative liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) was scheduled to replace naphtha feedstock in petrochemical units amid falling LPG prices. The weak fundamentals prompted sellers to release their naphtha cargoes into Taiwan at a discount on May 13 for the first time since late January. The discount levels in Taiwan deepened on May 28.
05-Jun-15 
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