Asia's gasoline crack rises to three-month high

Asia's gasoline crack rose for the third straight session on Monday, reaching a near three-month high of $9.29 a barrel, as focus on shrinking supplies pushed the value higher. State refiners and teapot refineries in China, from PetroChina to Sinopec, CNOOC and independent refiners in Shandong, have either cut runs or are planning to slash throughput due to demand destruction caused by the coronavirus.

PetroChina plans to reduce crude throughput by 320,000 barrels per day (bpd) this month, bringing the total production cuts by state refiners to 940,000 bpd this month. Teapot refineries in Shandong have cut operations by 30%-50% to less than half of their capacity, a level not seen since at least 2015.

Consulting firm FGE expects the overall crude runs in China to average around 11.3-11.5 million barrels per day (bpd) over February to March, it said on Monday. "Refinery runs should gradually recover from April onwards to reach around 12.6 mmb/d (million bpd) over 2Q as the demand situation improves. We should see a strong rebound to 13.0-14.0 mmb/d levels in 2H," FGE added.

China is Asia's top gasoline supplier, with its gasoline exports reaching new high every year for seven straight years in 2019. The India's Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) was actively seeking a large volume of gasoline for arrivals at Mundra, Mumbai, Ennore and Vizag between April 2020 and March 2021.

Taiwan's CPC last Thursday sold 30,000 tonnes of gasoline for March 6-22 loading from Kaohsiung at premiums of about $1.60 a barrel to Singapore quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis. CPC had previously cancelled a tender to sell a February cargo.