Energy · NAPHTHA

Naphtha price

Naphtha currently trades at US$815.17 per tonne (≈ €693.28 · £607.55) — 18.13% below the 12-month high. Over the past 12 months it has gained 49.24%, with the annual range running from US$488.37 to US$995.66. 24-hour movement is minimal (±0.00%).

US$815.17 / tonne
≈ €693.28 ≈ £607.55 Unchanged 24h 64% within the 52-week range
FX Editorial Team · Data updated: · Editorially verified
Naphtha (NAPHTHA) price today US$815.17 / tonne, ↑ +0.00% (24h)

Naphtha chart

Interactive chart and 30-day overview

7 days
▼ −9.14%
−US$81.97
30 days
▼ −9.69%
−US$87.44
1 year
▲ +49.24%
+US$268.95
52-week range
US$488.37 64% US$995.66
Naphtha (NAPHTHA) 30-day price chart — USD, EUR, GBP

The Naphtha chart shows how the naphtha price has moved over time. The interactive view lets you switch the timeframe (from 7 days up to MAX), the currency (USD / EUR / GBP) and overlay moving averages. Click any two points to measure the percentage change between those dates.

How is naphtha priced?

Naphtha is priced per metric tonne (1 t = 1,000 kg) — the standard unit for industrial and bulk commodities on the London Metal Exchange (LME), CME and major European exchanges. Wholesale shipments move in containers or bulk vessels, typically in 25-tonne or 100-tonne lots.

At US$815.17 per tonne, one kilogram is worth US$0.8152. End-user pricing for processed goods includes refining margins, transport and tariffs on top of the wholesale benchmark.

What drives the price of naphtha?

The main source of naphtha demand is the petrochemical steam-cracker industry. Around 85% of global output ends up in plastics, fibres and chemical supply chains as ethylene, propylene, butadiene and aromatics such as benzene, toluene and xylenes. The cracker margin, also known as the steam cracker margin, is the difference between the value of olefin products and the cost of naphtha feedstock. When the margin narrows, crackers cut utilisation and naphtha demand falls. Asian crackers, especially plants in South Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan, account for ~60% of global naphtha demand, so marginal pricing is centred on the Platts CFR Japan assessment.

The main structural challenge for naphtha prices is competition from US ethane-based crackers. Since the shale gas boom, a series of crackers has been built on the US Gulf Coast, especially in Texas and Louisiana. These plants produce ethylene from ethane separated cheaply from natural gas, typically with a USD 200–400 / tonne cost advantage on an ethylene-equivalent basis versus naphtha cracking. An ethane cracker, however, produces almost pure ethylene and very little propylene or aromatic by-product. A naphtha cracker produces a broader product slate, which gives the chemical industry a more valuable yield mix. The two models are therefore partly complementary and partly competitive. Each new unit of US ethane-cracker capacity indirectly reduces olefin-equivalent demand for naphtha.

A third driver is the refinery gasoline–naphtha switching decision. Naphtha is also a feedstock for gasoline production. The light fraction is converted into higher-octane motor gasoline through reforming or isomerisation. When global gasoline demand is strong, for example during the US summer driving season, refiners direct naphtha into the gasoline pool as blendstock, tightening supply for crackers. When gasoline markets are weak and cracker margins are high, more naphtha flows to petrochemical plants and prices adjust lower. Regional imbalances are handled through Atlantic–Pacific naphtha arbitrage: European surplus, priced off the Argus Mediterranean basis, is shipped by tanker to Asian crackers. The movement is reflected in the spread between the two benchmarks.

How to invest in the naphtha market

Naphtha is mainly a B2B commodity. The physical market operates between refineries and petrochemical plants, and most retail CFD brokers, including XTB, eToro and Plus500, do not list direct naphtha CFDs. A European retail investor therefore gains exposure through companies linked to the industry: integrated oil majors such as TotalEnergies (TTE), Shell and BP, whose refining and petrochemical divisions are directly affected by naphtha pricing; large Asian crackers such as LG Chem, Lotte Chemical and Formosa Plastics, the latter listed in Taiwan; and refinery-focused shares such as Reliance Industries on India’s NSE, which operates one of the world’s largest cracker complexes, or South Korea’s S-Oil. On the US ethane-cracker side, Dow (DOW) and LyondellBasell (LYB) offer exposure. Crude oil CFDs such as Brent and WTI also provide indirect exposure, but they do not track naphtha-specific margin moves precisely.

30-day price history

Chart and daily closing prices

Naphtha (NAPHTHA) 30-day price chart — USD, EUR, GBP

Daily close

30 trading days

Date Price (USD) Price (EUR) Price (GBP) Daily change
23 May 2026 US$815.17 €693.28 £607.55 ▲ +0.94%
22 May 2026 US$807.59 €686.83 £601.90 ▼ −4.27%
21 May 2026 US$843.61 €717.46 £628.74 ▼ −7.08%
20 May 2026 US$907.91 €772.15 £676.67 ▼ −0.97%
19 May 2026 US$916.80 €779.71 £683.29 ▲ +2.19%
16 May 2026 US$897.14 €762.99 £668.64 ▲ +2.46%
15 May 2026 US$875.57 €744.65 £652.56 ▼ −0.43%
14 May 2026 US$879.33 €747.84 £655.36 ▼ −2.17%
13 May 2026 US$898.84 €764.44 £669.91 ▲ +2.93%
12 May 2026 US$873.23 €742.66 £650.82 ▲ +4.08%
11 May 2026 US$839.00 €713.54 £625.31 ▲ +1.42%
10 May 2026 US$827.24 €703.54 £616.54 ▼ −7.83%
6 May 2026 US$897.56 €763.35 £668.95 ▼ −4.70%
5 May 2026 US$941.84 €801.01 £701.95 ▲ +6.53%
2 May 2026 US$884.10 €751.90 £658.92 ▼ −5.57%
1 May 2026 US$936.23 €796.24 £697.77 ▲ +0.01%
30 Apr 2026 US$936.14 €796.16 £697.71 ▲ +0.29%
29 Apr 2026 US$933.46 €793.88 £695.71 ▼ −0.22%
28 Apr 2026 US$935.54 €795.65 £697.26 ▲ +0.25%
25 Apr 2026 US$933.20 €793.66 £695.51 ▲ +3.39%
22 Apr 2026 US$902.61 €767.64 £672.72 ▲ +0.87%
21 Apr 2026 US$894.79 €760.99 £666.89 ▲ +2.33%
20 Apr 2026 US$874.44 €743.68 £651.72 —

Naphtha: frequently asked questions

What is naphtha and what is it used for? +
Naphtha is a light hydrocarbon fraction obtained from the atmospheric distillation of crude oil. It is a mixture that condenses in the 30–200 °C boiling range. It is not usually sold as a standalone end-product. Around 85% of global production goes into petrochemical steam crackers, where it is converted into ethylene, propylene, butadiene and aromatics such as benzene, toluene and xylenes. These are the base monomers for plastics such as polyethylene and polypropylene, synthetic fibres such as polyester and nylon, and chemical intermediates such as PET, ABS and styrene. The remaining share is used as a gasoline blending component after reforming, or as an industrial solvent.
How much does a kilogram or litre of naphtha cost? +
International naphtha prices are quoted by the tonne. In an example based on ~USD 650 / tonne, the wholesale raw-material price of a kilogram of naphtha is about USD 0.65. At a density of ~0.7 kg/l, a litre of naphtha is about USD 0.46. This is strictly a B2B bulk price at the refinery gate, for cargoes moved by tanker or barge. Naphtha is not sold to retail consumers and trades through refinery and petrochemical contracts.
What is the difference between naphtha and gasoline? +
Naphtha is the precursor to gasoline in a refinery. It sits in a similar boiling range of ~30–200 °C, but it is not suitable as a direct motor fuel because its octane rating is low and its composition does not meet current gasoline specifications. To turn it into gasoline, refineries use catalytic reforming, which converts paraffins into aromatics, and isomerisation, which converts straight-chain hydrocarbons into branched ones. Other blending components, such as alkylate, oxygenates and ethanol, are then added. Gasoline is therefore a further-processed, standardised end-product made from naphtha. The two markets are priced separately and tracked through different benchmarks.
Why is European naphtha shipped to Asia? +
The largest users of global naphtha demand are Asian steam crackers. South Korea, especially plants operated by LG Chem and Lotte Chemical, Japan through companies such as Mitsui Chemicals and Idemitsu, China and Taiwan through Formosa Plastics together account for ~60% of global naphtha demand. Europe, by contrast, has a structural naphtha surplus because continental refineries are configured to maximise middle distillates such as diesel and kerosene, while the light fraction exceeds what local crackers and the gasoline pool can absorb. The surplus is shipped by tanker to Asian crackers. The west–east naphtha arbitrage is measured through the spread between the Argus Mediterranean and Platts CFR Japan benchmarks.
What does competition between ethane crackers and naphtha crackers mean? +
Steam crackers use two main feedstocks globally: naphtha, which is crude-oil based, and ethane, which is separated from natural gas. Since the US shale gas boom, ethane has become structurally cheaper, and Gulf Coast crackers built around it, including Dow, LyondellBasell, ExxonMobil Chemical and Shell Pennsylvania, produce ethylene with a USD 200–400 / tonne cost advantage versus naphtha crackers. An ethane cracker, however, produces almost pure ethylene and very little propylene, butadiene or aromatic by-product. A naphtha cracker produces a broader product slate, which is especially valuable in Asia, where propylene demand for polypropylene is strong. The two models are therefore partly substitutes and partly complements.
What is the naphtha–Brent crack spread? +
The naphtha–Brent crack spread is a rough proxy for refinery and cracker margins on light fractions. The naphtha price per tonne is converted into a barrel equivalent, using 1 t naphtha ≈ 8.9 barrels, and the Brent crude price per barrel is then subtracted. The difference shows how much the market is paying to make the light fraction of crude available to the petrochemical and gasoline markets. If the spread narrows or turns negative, it usually points to weak cracker margins and weak global gasoline demand. Refineries then reduce light-fraction output and supply tightens until margins normalise.
How is naphtha linked to the global petrochemical cycle? +
Naphtha is the main entry feedstock in the petrochemical value chain in Asia and Europe, so its price moves closely with the global plastics and chemicals cycle. Slower Chinese construction activity, weaker automotive demand or soft European chemical production can all lead to lower cracker utilisation, which feeds directly into the Platts CFR Japan and Argus Mediterranean naphtha assessments. Conversely, strong Asian plastics output or tight olefin supply caused by cracker outages can widen naphtha margins quickly. Monomer markets such as ethylene and propylene are therefore worth tracking alongside naphtha prices.
Why do brokers not offer direct naphtha CFDs? +
The ICE Naphtha futures contract has significantly lower liquidity than Brent or WTI crude oil benchmarks, and the physical market is conducted almost entirely through B2B contracts between refineries and petrochemical plants. Retail CFD brokers such as XTB, eToro, Plus500 and IG therefore do not usually list it as a standalone product, as low liquidity would mean wide spreads and slippage. A retail investor can follow naphtha-market moves through integrated oil majors such as TotalEnergies, Shell and BP, cracker and chemical shares such as Dow, LyondellBasell, LG Chem and Reliance, and indirect Brent / WTI CFD exposure.

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Data sources: ICE Naphtha Futures (CIF NWE Cargoes) · Argus Media — Mediterranean Naphtha Market Reports · S&P Global Platts — Asian Naphtha (CFR Japan) · ICIS — Naphtha Markets