Asia’s gasoline refining profit margin fell to the lowest level since June 28 on Wednesday amid selling interest in the paper market, traders said.

The crack fell to $5.42 per barrel over Brent crude from $7.02 on Tuesday.

There is a lot of selling action in the paper market pulling the crack down, but fundamentals for gasoline are not that bad, a Singapore-based trader said.

In the naphtha market, the refining profit margin fell by $7 to $85.90 a metric ton over Brent crude on Wednesday. The backwardation between second-half September and second-half October naphtha prices widened by 25 cents to $4.50.

NEWS

– U.S. crude oil, gasoline and distillate inventories rose by 176,000 barrels in the week ended Aug. 2. Gasoline inventories rose by 3.313 million barrels, and distillates rose by 1.217 million barrels.

– China’s daily crude oil imports in July fell to their lowest since September 2022. China brought in 42.34 million metric tons in July, or about 9.97 million barrels per day (bpd), data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

– The U.S. Energy Information Administration lifted its forecast for 2024 U.S. oil demand by 100,000 bpd to 20.5 million bpd. It left its 2024 world oil demand growth forecast unchanged, with consumption increasing year-over-year by 1.1 million bpd to 102.9 million bpd.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Haridas and Mohi Narayan; Editing by Eileen Soreng)