In 2019, Asian naphtha faces the pressure of oversupply

The naphtha market in Asia looks set to come under downward pressure in the first half of 2019 as leading producers in the Middle East and southeast Asia ramp up production and demand in northeast Asia is likely to fall during the steam cracking plant maintenance season from April to June.

According to market sources, as more and more naphtha supplies flow into Asia, the launch of new plants in the Middle East in late 2018 will have a strong impact in the * quarter of 2019 (when the new plants will be fully operational).

The new black carbon and delayed coking units that ABU dhabi petroleum company or ABU dhabi petroleum company launched at the luwasi refinery in September will add 300, 000 metric tons a year to naphtha production.

Barings natural gas, or banagas, is opening its third central gas plant with a capacity of 350 million cubic feet a day, which is expected to double its annual exports of naphtha to 360, 000 metric tons.

Looking ahead to east Asia, Malaysia's 300,000 b/d integrated refinery and petrochemical development (RAPID) project is expected to begin in the * quarter.

Market sources said the launch of a steam cracking unit with an annual ethylene capacity of 1.3m tonnes, operated by Malaysia * petroleum's refinery and petrochemicals company, could absorb some of the increase in naphtha production from the new refinery.

Will be extra supplies from Australia, is expected in 2019, Japan's Inpex company will load the 10 batches of condensate from Australia, the quality and public specifications naphtha are similar, the 10 batches of condensate from the Australian port of Darwin Ichthys LNG project, each batch of goods is 320000 barrels, or 35555 metric tons, the plant's * condensate cargo shipped to Asia last week of the end user.On the other hand, as the second quarter approaches, demand for paraffin naphtha is likely to wane in north Asia, especially South Korea, during a tightly regulated steam cracking unit maintenance season