Asia’s naphtha refining profit margin extended gains on Tuesday amid weakness in crude oil benchmarks and market focus on upcoming tariff deadline of July 9.

The crack rose to nearly $75 a metric ton over Brent crude, compared with $70.43 a day earlier. The window remained devoid of deals for a third straight session.

Meanwhile, Algeria’s Sonatrach left unchanged official selling prices (OSPs) for liquefied petroleum gas in July at $445 per metric ton for propane and at $435 per ton butane.

Saudi Aramco cut its July OSP for propane by $25 per ton to $575 and for butane by $25 per ton to $545.

In the gasoline market, energy trader Vitol snapped up 50,000 barrels of higher 95-octane grade of gasoline, and SK Energy purchased 100,000 barrels of benchmark-grade of the fuel at the trading window, market participants said.

The gasoline refining profit margin rose to about $11 per barrel over Brent crude on Tuesday.

– Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, may raise its August crude oil prices for buyers in Asia to the highest in four months, after spot prices surged during the Iran-Israel conflict and on robust summer fuel demand, trade sources said.

– U.S. crude oil production hit a record 13.47 million barrels-per-day in April, up from 13.45 million bpd in March, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration as part of its Petroleum Supply Monthly series.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

Two gasoline trades.
Source: Reuters