Asia’s refining profit margin for gasoline jumped by about 31% this week on the back of firm demand in the region from key importers like Malaysia.
The crack climbed to $17.02 a barrel over Brent crude on Friday, from $14.98 a day earlier.

At the deals window, energy trader Unipec bought 50,000 barrels of benchmark grade of gasoline. There were no trades for naphtha for a fifth straight session.

The naphtha crack rebounded from deep discounts to $1.40 a metric ton this week amid healthy demand from spot buyers. On Friday, the price of first-half September naphtha rose by $3.5 to a one-week high of $602.75 per metric ton.

INVENTORIES ARA/

Gasoline stocks held at the trading hub of refining and storage hub Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) rose to 1.401 million metric tons in the week to Thursday, compared with 1.335 million metric tons in the prior week.

Naphtha inventories declined to 231,000 tons in the week to July 20 from 266,000 metric tons in the prior week.

NEWS

– Bangladesh’s state-owned energy companies plan to borrow $900 million from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia-based International Islamic Trade Finance Corp (ITFC).

– Iran’s oil ministry said the oil cargo of an Iranian-flagged supertanker seized by Indonesia last week does not belong to Tehran, Iranian state media reported on Friday.

– Asian refiners have booked near-record volumes of U.S. crude to be shipped in August, replacing Middle Eastern oil, as competitive prices and ample supplies attracted heavy buying, according to trade sources.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Mohi Narayan; Editing by Varun H K)