Asia Naphtha Crack Rises; PetroChina Sells Cargoes: Oil Products
February 23, 2012, 6:52 AM ESTBy Yee Kai Pin and Ann Koh
Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Asia’s naphtha crack spread widened from the lowest in four days, signaling higher profit for refiners making the petrochemical feedstock. PetroChina Co. sold gasoil fuel-oil cargoes in Singapore.
Light Distillates
Japan naphtha’s premium to London-traded Brent crude futures rose to $122.98 a metric ton at 3 p.m. Singapore time from $119.32, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. This crack spread, a measure of processing profit, was $134.04 on Feb. 20, the highest in three weeks.
Vitol Group bought 50,000 barrels of 92-RON gasoline from Total SA at $131.50 a barrel, according to a Bloomberg News survey of traders who monitored transactions on the Platts window.
Middle Distillates
Hin Leong Trading Pte bought three 150,000-barrel cargoes of gasoil, or diesel, with 0.5 percent in Singapore, according to the Bloomberg survey. PetroChina paid 20 cents a barrel over benchmark quotes to load from March 9 to March 13, BP Plc paid a 10-cent premium for March 10 to March 14 and Royal Dutch Shell Plc bought at parity for March 11 to March 15. Brightoil Petroleum Holdings Ltd. sold a similar cargo for March 20 to March 24 to Glencore International Plc at a premium of 10 cents a barrel.
PetroChina sold two 150,000-barrel cargoes of gasoil with 10 parts-per-million of sulfur for March 9 to March 13 loading, the survey showed. Shell and BP each paid $2.40 a barrel above benchmark quotes.
Gasoil’s premium to Asian marker Dubai crude increased 59 cents to $16.44 a barrel at 2:37 p.m. Singapore time, according to data from PVM Oil Associates Ltd., a broker. That’s the widest crack spread so far this week.
Jet fuel declined 5 cents to a 70 cent-a-barrel premium to gasoil, PVM said. This regrade turned positive on Feb. 21 after more than five weeks at a discount, indicating it has become profitable to produce aviation fuel over diesel.
Fuel Oil
PetroChina sold two 20,000-ton cargoes of 180-centistoke fuel oil in Singapore, according to the Bloomberg survey. The Chinese producer received $7 a ton over benchmark quotes from Vitol to load from March 20 to March 24 and a $6 premium from Mercuria Energy Ltd. for March 14 to March 18.
Kuo Oil Ltd. sold 20,000 tons of 380-centistoke grade to Brightoil Petroleum at $6.25 a ton above benchmark quotes, for March 20 to March 24 loading, the survey showed. Hin Leong bought a similar cargo for March 9 to March 13 from Lukoil OAO, which sold four cargoes yesterday.
Fuel oil fell 53 cents to $5.63 a barrel below Dubai crude at 2:37 p.m. Singapore time, based on PVM data. The discount has widened 19 percent so far this week, indicating losses for refiners turning oil into residual products.
The premium of 180-centistoke fuel oil to 380-centistoke grade, or the viscosity spread, was unchanged after rising to $10.75 a ton, PVM said. This means bunker, or marine fuel, moved in tandem with higher-quality fuel oil.
Refinery News
Cosmo Oil Co. plans to idle the No. 2 crude-distillation unit at its refinery in Chiba, Japan, for maintenance from the end of April until the beginning of June, according to a company official, who asked not to be identified because the information has not been made public.
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.’s Jinling refinery produced China IV grade gasoline that met government standards, parent China Petrochemical Corp. said in its online newsletter today. This has similar specifications to the Euro IV grade.
JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp. shut a 9,300 barrel-a-day alkylation unit at its Mizushima A refinery in western Japan today after a fire, a company official said.
The unit caught fire around 11:45 a.m. local time, according to a statement on the company’s website. The fire, extinguished in 20 minutes, did not affect operations of the 150,000 barrel-a-day crude distillation unit at the refinery, according to the official, who declined to be identified because of company policy.
--Editor: Alexander Kwiatkowski, Mike Anderson.
To contact the reporters on this story: Yee Kai Pin in Singapore at kyee13@bloomberg.net; Ann Koh in Singapore at akoh15@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net
