SINGAPORE: Asian refining margins for 10 ppm gasoil slipped on Friday, but posted a second consecutive weekly gain, buoyed by expectations for a tighter market as regional refinery outages would cap near-term supplies.

Refining margins, also known as cracks, for 10 ppm gasoil dipped 14 cents to $6.46 per barrel over Dubai crude during Asian trading hours, lingering close to a near one-month high touched earlier in the week.

Cracks for the benchmark gasoil grade in Singapore have gained 22.6% this week, their steepest weekly rise since end-October.

China’s diesel exports in April are expected to drop below last month’s total of 2.9 million tonnes as both state-owned and teapot refineries enter turnarounds this month, but the downside would likely be limited by high domestic inventories, according to Refinitiv Oil Research assessments.

Cash differentials for 10 ppm gasoil remained unchanged on Friday at a discount of 1 cent per barrel, while April/May time spread for the industrial fuel grade widened its contango structure by a cent to minus 8 cents per barrel.

Gasoil stocks held independently in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub slipped 0.9% to 2.3 million tonnes in the week to April 8, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

The data showed ARA jet fuel inventories rose 1.6% to 904,000 tonnes.