Asia’s gasoline complex gained on Wednesday as a series of outages at regional plants and firm demand from key importers like Indonesia continued to support margins, traders and analysts said.

The crack rose to $14.16 per barrel over Brent crude, compared with $13.91 a barrel on Tuesday.

The naphtha crack, on the other hand, eased by about $7 to $88.57 a metric ton over Brent crude on Wednesday after Novatek resumed loadings from its damaged export terminal.

Russian energy company Novatek resumed fuel loadings on Wednesday at its Baltic Sea Ust-Luga terminal, damaged in a suspected drone attack, according to industry sources and LSEG data. The tankers Minerva Julie and Chrystal Arctic are currently being loaded with fuel, the data showed.

Operations at the processing complex have not yet resumed. Analysts have said it would take weeks for the complex to restore full-scale operations.

INVENTORIES

Light distillate stocks at the Fujairah commercial hub rose by 663,000 barrels to 6.702 million barrels in the week to Jan. 22, S&P Global Commodity Insights data showed.

U.S. gasoline inventories gained 7.2 million barrels last week, according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures. API/S

NEWS

– Russia, the world’s second-largest crude oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, fully replaced its oil and natural gas reserves in 2023 helped by ample discoveries of new fields, the state commission on subsoil reserves said.

– Oil seesawed between modest falls and gains as traders weighed the impact on prices stemming from escalating geopolitical tensions, concerns over tepid demand and a stronger dollar.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

One gasoline trade, no naphtha deals.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Mohi Narayan; Editing by Shweta Agarwal)