Asia’s gasoline margins slumped to their lowest in more than three weeks on Friday, as gasoline inventories in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) area climbed to their highest in 13 months.
The crack dropped from $7.79 a day earlier to $7.13 per barrel over Brent crude, its weakest level since Nov. 27.
Gasoline stocks independently held in the ARA refining and storage hub rose by nearly 1% in the week to Thursday, reaching their highest since mid-November 2023, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.
Meanwhile, Chinese gasoline demand is expected to decline with the rapid transition to electric mobility as well as slower economic growth, LSEG Oil Research analysts said in a report on Friday.
In the naphtha market, the margins NAF-SIN-CRK slipped to $93.98 from $96.30 the previous day.
In deals, energy trader AGT Asia sold 25,000 tons of naphtha for loading in the second half of February 2025 to Shell International Eastern Trading Company (SIETCO), and Thai state-owned PTT sold 100,000 barrels of 92-octane gasoline loading during Jan. 15-19 to Unipec Singapore, market participants said.
NEWS
Oil prices fell on Friday on worries about demand growth in 2025, especially in top crude importer China, putting global oil benchmarks on track to end the week down nearly 3%.
Chinese state-owned refiner Sinopec said in its annual energy outlook released on Thursday that China’s crude imports could peak as soon as 2025 and the country’s oil consumption would peak by 2027 as diesel and gasoline demand weaken.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS
One naphtha deal and one gasoline deal.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Gabrielle Ng; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)