SINGAPORE: Asia’s gasoline and naphtha margins dropped on Thursday as concerns over tight supplies were eased amid plans to release strategic oil supplies and a rebound in Singapore inventories.
The gasoline crack in the region fell to a more than five-week low of $9.71 a barrel on Thursday, down from $11.11 a barrel in the previous session. The refining margin for naphtha fell to a four-week low of $152.52 a tonne from $160.58 on Wednesday.
The world’s biggest economies said on Thursday they were looking into releasing oil from their strategic reserves, following a rare request from the United States for a coordinated move to cool global energy prices.
Singapore’s light distillate inventories jumped 14% to a three-week high of 11.21 million barrels in the week to Nov. 17, Enterprise Singapore data showed. In the previous week, the inventories hit a more than two-year low of 9.85 million barrels, the data showed.
The inventories gained amid firm naphtha imports and despite rising gasoline exports. Singapore was a net exporter of 90-97 RON gasoline at slightly above 183,000 tonnes in the week to Nov. 17, compared with net exports of 109,000 tonnes the previous week.
Net exports of gasoline below 90 RON were at 56,000 tonnes, compared with net exports of 19,000 tonnes in the previous week. Singapore’s net imports of naphtha reformates were at 104,000 tonnes in the week to Nov. 17, down from 193,000 tonnes in the previous week.
In the United States, gasoline stocks fell by 708,000 barrels in the week to Nov. 12, compared with expectations for a 575,000-barrel drop.
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