Naphtha crack in Asia rises to 17-month high

15-Jul-14

Naphtha crack in Asia rose to a 17-month high of US$174.6/ton at the start of the week, while the gasoline crack edged up to a one-year high of US$15.05 a barrel due to squeezed supplies, as per Reuters. India's Oil & Natural Gas Corp cancelled a naphtha cargo for Aug. 9-10 loading from Hazira due to gas supply disruptions to its complex. This added to the string of previous and ongoing plant maintenance and outages in India which have dented naphtha and gasoline supplies. Formosa's purchases also came as a surprise- Formosa, Asia's top naphtha importer, has bought a total of 200,000 tons of spot naphtha for August delivery, similar to what it had purchased for July delivery, despite a scheduled maintenance at the largest of three naphtha crackers at its 2.93 mln tpa cracking complex in Mailiao from Aug. 16 to end September.