Asia’s gasoline markets continued its steady uptrend on Thursday as supplies from China tightened, while summer demand in the region remained firm.

The refining margin for gasoline traded above $8 per barrel over Brent crude. China’s gasoline exports slid 2% on the year to 930,000 metric tons, but were up from 860,000 metric tons in May. Analysts expect further drop in Chinese supplies in July.

In naphtha markets, refining margin rose to $70.93 per metric ton over Brent crude and the backwardation between first-half September and first-half October prices widened to $6.50 per ton.

At the deals window, several offer withdrawals were reported for the light distillate, while there were three bids. Energy trader Vitol bought a first-half October naphtha cargo.

Meanwhile, Singapore light distillate stocks rose 1.206 million barrels to a two-week high of 14.513 million barrels in the week to July 17, Enterprise Singapore data showed.

NEWS

– A mini OPEC+ ministerial meeting next month is unlikely to recommend changing the group’s output policy, including a plan to start unwinding one layer of oil output cuts from October, three sources told Reuters.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Mohi Narayan; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)