Asia’s naphtha price for second-half October cargo tanked by $16 on Thursday, mirroring the weakness in crude oil benchmarks, and the backwardation shrank to $7 a ton.

The price for second-half October naphtha traded at $594.50 a ton, compared with $610.50 a day earlier.

In refinery news, ExxonMobil is seeking to offload its European chemical plants in the UK and Belgium, according to media reports.

Shell, on the other hand, will not resume construction of a biofuels facility at its Shell Energy and Chemicals Park in Rotterdam after an in-depth evaluation found it would not be competitive, the company said on Wednesday.

INVENTORIES

Singapore light distillate stocks rose to a two-week high of 14.4 million barrels in the week to September 3, Enterprise Singapore data showed.

U.S. gasoline inventories fell by 4.58 million barrels last week, market sources said, citing American Petroleum Institute figures.

NEWS

– European commodities broker and financial group Marex is expanding its global petrochemical trading team, betting on a recovery in an industry hit by lower margins, its new petrochemical trading head said.

– Oil prices dipped on Thursday, extending the more than 2% decline of the previous session, as investors awaited a weekend meeting of OPEC+ where producers are expected to consider another increase in output targets.
Source: Reuters