NEW DELHI: Asia’s gasoline margin further weakened amid thin liquidity on Tuesday, pressured by speculation around fresh quotas from China, traders said, contributing to a decline in overall refining margin for the region to below $2 a barrel.
The profit on making gasoline from Brent crude in Asia fell to $11.61 a barrel, compared with $12.03 a barrel a day earlier. The crack is down nearly 33% since the beginning of last week.
Chinese oil refinery throughput surged to a record in March, data showed on Tuesday, as refiners stepped up runs to capture strong export demand and build-up inventories ahead of planned maintenance.
The country’s gasoline exports fell to 0.76 million tonnes from 1.16 million tonnes last year, the data showed.
In physical markets, energy trader Vitol bought 50,000 barrels of benchmark grade of gasoline. There were no deals for naphtha.
India’s MRPL offered 30,000 tonnes of reformate for delivery during May 9-May 13 in a tender that closes on Wednesday with same-day validity. A commitment from the Group of Seven wealthy countries to phase out fossil fuels faster has been welcomed as a potential step towards a global deal for all countries to do the same, but is facing criticism for not matching the pledge with firm action.
Oil fell for a second day on Tuesday as upbeat Chinese economic data failed to deflect the focus from a possible increase to US interest rates and wider concern about the growth outlook.
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