Asia’s gasoline refining margin gained but lingered near October 2023 lows on Friday after European stocks jumped by 27% on high supplies and slowing exports.

The crack rose by about $1 to $4.55 per barrel over Brent crude. A total of 100,000 barrels of benchmark-grade of gasoline changed hands at the deals window at $86.80 a barrel.

Singapore markets closed early on account of a public holiday on Monday.

Gasoline inventories at the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub rose to 1.129 million tons in the week to Thursday, compared with 890,000 tons in the prior week, Insights Global data showed.

Naphtha stocks fell about 6% on the week to 486,000 tons as increasing volumes moved into the gasoline blending pool.

In the U.S., total refinery throughput remained at the top of the historic 2015-2019 range for a third consecutive week, despite the country being down almost 300,000 bpd of distillation capacity from the five-year average, estimates from energy consultancy FGE showed.

“This has helped drive huge builds, with total refined product stocks deviating from the 2015-2019 average path they had been following since early April,” analysts at FGE wrote in a note.

NEWS

– U.S. oil refineries have been processing petroleum at the fastest rate for the time of year since before the pandemic, but rising fuel inventories have begun to weigh on crack spreads and likely signal a slowdown ahead.

– Oil prices eased on Friday as markets evaluated the impact of U.S. interest rates staying higher for longer than anticipated, but crude benchmarks headed for their best week in more than two months after solid projections for crude and fuel demand.

– OPEC does not see a peak in oil demand in its long-term forecast and expects demand to grow to 116 million barrels a day by 2045, and may be higher, the secretary general said.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Mohi Narayan; Editing by Eileen Soreng)