Asia’s gasoline profit refining margin fell on Thursday even as a series of dealsfor the benchmark grade of the fuel concluded at the Singapore window.

The crack fell to $8.19 per barrel over Brent crude from $8.99 on Wednesday.

In the naphtha market, the crack increased by $4 to $64.43 per metric ton over Brent crude. The backwardation between second-half September and second-half October went to zero.

In tenders, LG Chem sought 25,000 tonsof September-loadingnaphtha, while Lotte Chem bought one cargo of naphtha for the same month, as shared by traders.

INVENTORIES

U.S. gasoline stocks fell by 3.7 million barrels in the week to July 31 to 223.8 million barrels as shared by the Energy Information Administration, which was over three times more than the 1 million drawdown expected by analysts.

Singapore light distillates stocks fell 1.33 million barrels to a three-week lowof 14.398 million barrelsin week to July 31, data from Enterprise Singapore showed.

NEWS

– OPEC+ key ministers meet on Thursday to decide output policy with sources expecting it is unlikely to make any changes to its current deal to cut production and to start unwinding some cuts from October, despite recent sharp declines in oil prices.

– Shell SHEL.L reported second-quarter profit of $6.3 billion, a drop of 19% from the previous three months, as refining margins and oil and gas trading weakened, though still beating analysts’ forecasts.

– Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) 2010.SE, one of the world’s biggest petrochemicals companies, reported a close to 85% jump in second-quarter net profit on Thursday, helped by higher margins on some key products.

Six gasoline deals and one naphtha trade.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Haridas and Mohi Narayanan; Editing by Maju Samuel)