The naphtha market has had a fortnight of two halves. The Apr’25 NWE naphtha crack weakened from an intraday high of -$2.46/bbl on 26 Feb to -$3.55/bbl on 4 Mar. Following this weakness, the contract rallied to -$2.55/bbl at the time of writing on 11 Mar. Trade houses were notably seen selling the Apr’25 crack against Onyx but trimmed this positioning following 5 Mar – in line with price action. Exchange-traded open interest in the M1 NWE naphtha crack has risen by 35% in the fortnight ending 7 Mar to around 20mb, around 40% above the 5-year average for this time of the year.
