1 week Ago By hellenicshippingnews...
Asia’s naphtha refining margins climbed to their highest in more than two months on Thursday, as traders returned to their desks following a week of dimmed market activity during the year-end holiday season. The crack (NAF-SIN-CRK) rose $2.82 from the previous session to $104.
50, its strongest level since Nov. 7, while the price for second-half February naphtha rose $4.25 to $665.
50 per metric ton. In the gasoline market, the margins (GL92-SIN-CRK) ticked up by $0.47 to $7.
80 per barrel, as a flurry of trades at the closing window overshadowed higher inventories of the distillate products. Stocks of light distillates in Singapore gained for the second consecutive week to hit a six-month high of 16.048 million barrels in the week to Jan.
1, data from Enterprise Singapore showed on Thursday. In the U.S.
, gasoline inventories are expected to have risen by 0.3 million barrels last week, an extended Reuters poll showed on Tuesday. Market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures said U.
S. gasoline stockpiles were up 2.2 million barrels in the same week.
Still, at the Fujairah commercial hub, light distillate inventories edged lower for the third straight week to 6.068 million barrels in the week to Dec. 30, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights data released on Wednesday.
Oil prices nudged higher on Thursday, the first day of trade for 2025, as investors returning from holidays cautiously eyed China’s economy and fuel demand following a pledge by President Xi Jinping to promote growth. In 2024, crude prices fell around 3%, slipping for a second straight year as the post-pandemic demand recovery stalled, China’s economy struggled and the U.S.
and other non-OPEC producers pumped more crude into a well-supplied global market. Oil prices are likely to be constrained near $70 a barrel in 2025, down for a third year after a 3% decline in 2024, as weak Chinese demand and rising global supplies offset efforts by OPEC+ to shore up the market, a Reuters monthly poll showed on Tuesday. State-run Sinochem Group has received a crude oil import quota of 17.
12 million metric tons for 2025, which will be for the group’s eastern China refineries, trade sources said on Tuesday. Three gasoline trades and one naphtha trade. Source: Reuters.
