Asia’s gasoline refining profit margin ticked up, in line with gains in global markets, on Thursday after U.S. inventories declined larger than expected, although rising stocks at the Singapore hub limited the upside.

The crack rose by 19 cents to $13.03 a barrel over Brent crude. At the physical window, energy traders P66 and Sietco bought a cargo each of the fuel. A total of 100,000 barrels of gasoline changed hands.

There were no deals for naphtha for a second straight day this month, market participants said.

Meanwhile, there was mixed trade data from China. Imports of oil products fell 21.6 % to 3.53 million tonnes while exports of oil products rose 10.9 % to 5.89 million tonnes.

INVENTORIES

U.S. gasoline stocks fell by a larger-than-expected 5.1 million barrels, market sources said. Analysts estimated a fall by about 1 million barrels.

Singapore light distillate inventories rose by 911,000 barrels to a 10-week high of 13.839 million barrels in the week to Sept. 6, Enterprise Singapore data showed.

NEWS

– Shell considered shutting its flagship Prelude liquefied natural gas facility off Australia for a year to fix issues that have plagued its operations, but instead opted for shorter maintenance period to allow it to capture strong gas demand, three industry sources said.

– Oil prices eased on Thursday as worries over demand due to a seasonal slowdown during winter and an uncertain economic outlook for China outweighed expectations of tighter supplies from extended production cuts in Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Mohi Narayan; Editing by Shweta Agarwal)