Oil products bearish RI woes

Oil products bearish RI woes

TOKYO (Reuters): The Tokyo oil products market was bearish yesterday on concern near-term demand from Indonesia could fall due to the social unrest there, traders said.

"Gas oil seems to be most affected purely because of the sheer volume Indonesia imports every month," one trader said.

Indonesia, China and India are the region's three heavyweight gas oil buyers.

Open-spec naphtha for second-half July was assessed at $157/$158 per ton in afternoon trade. On Thursday, it was traded at $160.50 and $158.

The backwardation in inter-month spreads has mostly disappeared, with both the first-half and the second-half of July pegged flat, traders said.

In term talks for Aramco cargoes, the price for ethylene-rich A-180 was set at $11 per ton over the Aramco formula for the July-December period, down from a $12 premium in the first half of 1998.