SINGAPORE, April 17 (Reuters) - The Asian gasoline crackrecovered from a week's low on Thursday to reach a two-sessionhigh of $10.50 a barrel, or 13.27 percent higher than a monthago, as an outage in India impacted supplies. Essar Oil has reduced its gasoline output due to atechnical problem at a continuous catalytic reformer (CCR), acompany spokesman said, adding that it will take about afortnight to resolve the technical issue. "Because of this, our gasoline production will be impacted,"he added. Traders said Essar had, before the outage, sold two gasolinecargoes totalling at least 110,000 tonnes for April loading. Oneof the cargoes went to BP for April 18-19 loading andanother for April 26-28 loading to Vitol. They added that the cargo sold to BP will be delayed byweeks, but it was unclear if Vitol's cargo will be affected. Ten gasoline deals totalling 500,000 barrels were transactedin the Singapore cash market, five times the volumes done in theprevious session. (See Singapore cash deals below) NAPHTHA FLAT Asia's naphtha crack was mostly flat at $135.88 a tonne, ornearly 8 percent higher than what it was a month ago as currenttighter supplies supported sellers' sentiment. The strong fundamentals were reflected in the recent spotdeals done, with the latest on Reliance Industries. The Indian refiner sold a long-range vessel size naphthacargo for May 15-20 loading from Sikka at premiums in the high$30s a tonne level to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board(FOB) basis, traders said on Thursday. They added that the buyer could be an oil major, but thiscould not be directly confirmed. The last time Reliance receivedhigh $30s a tonne was for a January 2014 lifting cargo. "Although European cargoes being fixed for May arrival inAsia could be higher than what was initially expected, Asia'sinventories are still comparatively low due to strong demand,"said a Singapore-based trader. Traders said cargoes arriving in Asia from Europe and theMediterranean may have increased to about 1.3 million tonnes,from an earlier expectations of up to 1 million tonnes. SINGAPORE CASH DEALS: Twelve deals, of which two were onnaphtha and ten on gasoline. BP bought two 92-octane gasoline cargoes for May 7-11loading at $119.90 a barrel each from Trafigura and Phillips 66. The oil major bought another 92-octane gasoline cargo fromTrafigura for May 13-17 loading at $119.70 a barrel. Vitol bought a 92-octane gasoline cargo for May 13-17loading from Glencore at $119.80 a barrel and from Trafigura asimilar grade cargo for May 7-11 loading at $119.90 a barrel. Shell bought two 95-octane gasoline cargoes, one of whichwas from PetroChina for May 9-13 loading at $123.40 a barrel andthe other from Unipec for May 8-12 loading at $123.50 a barrel. Unipec bought two 92-octane gasoline cargoes from Trafigurafor May 7-11 loading at $119.90 a barrel and $120.00 a barrelrespectively. Glencore sold to PetroChina a 92-octane gasoline cargo forMay 13-17 loading at $120.00 a barrel. On naphtha, BP inked a first-half June/first-half Julyspread deal with buyer Shell at $17 a tonne. Shell also bought a second-half June naphtha cargo fromVitol at $948 a tonne. LIGHT DISTILLATES CASH ($/T) ASIA CLOSE Change % Change Prev RIC Close OSN Naphtha CFR Japan M1 956.75 -2.00 -0.21 958.75
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