Asia’s price for first-half November naphtha fell by $9 to $604 per metric ton on Thursday, mirroring the weakness in crude oil benchmarks.

The backwardation between prompt and front-month parcels was steady at $6.25 a ton. The refining margin for the product declined by about $7 to $94.90 a ton over Brent crude.

Meanhile, stoking more supply fears, two Ukrainian drones attacked the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat oil processing and petrochemical complex, one of Russia’s largest.

In gasoline market, the crack fell below $13 per barrel over Brent crude on Thursday due to a rise in Singapore stockpiles.

INVENTORIES

– Light distillate stocks rose by 259,000 barrels to a two-week high of 14.366 million barrels in the week to September 17, Enterprise Singapore data showed.
– U.S. gasoline stocks (USOILG=ECI) fell by 2.3 million barrels in the week to 217.6 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with forecasts for a 100,000-barrel build.​

NEWS

– Oil prices edged lower on Thursday after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates as traders weighed the start of looser monetary policy against concerns about the U.S. economy.
– Oil demand continues to grow in Asia, while China and some other countries have been replenishing their crude stockpiles, Alexander Dyukov, the head of Russian oil major Gazprom Neft said on Thursday, TASS news agency reported.
– ExxonMobil is pausing 100 million euros ($118.4 million) of investment in European plastic recycling because of draft EU rules that determine the recycled content in a final product.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

One naphtha and one gasoline trade.
Source: Reuters