SINGAPORE: Asia’s gasoline crack inched lower on Friday, but stayed within close sight of a multi-month peak hit in the previous session on tighter supplies and hopes of firmer demand as vaccination drives help governments ease mobility restrictions.

Refining profit margins, also known as cracks, for gasoline slipped to $9.51 per barrel on Friday, as against Thursday’s $9.92 per barrel that was the highest level since November 2019. The cracks have gained 8.3% this week, the steepest weekly rise since July 9.

Asia’s naphtha crack jumped to $142.15 per tonne on Friday, up from $136.90 a tonne on Thursday and lingering near a multi-year high touched last week.

The naphtha crack, which climbed 2.3% this week, has climbed nearly 35% in the last two months. “As we witness global naphtha cracks continuing strength since the spring, we can see that seaborne naphtha imports carry on with their impressive recovery reaching 3.34 million barrels per day (bpd) in July,” data analytics firm Vortexa said in a note.

China’s fuel demand is on track to hit record highs this year on a rebound in car sales and booming domestic air travel, even as a resurgence of COVID cases slows movement in some cities in the near term, analysts say.

Overall consumption of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel in the world’s top crude oil importer is expected to grow by 7% to 11% in 2021 to a record between 8.4 million and 8.9 million barrels per day, analysts at consultancy SIA Energy, IHS Markit and Energy Aspects estimated.

Gasoline demand, which accounts for a quarter of China’s refined fuel use, is forecast to rise by 11% to 13% this year to a record 3.8 million to 4.1 million barrels per day, well above the IEA’s March forecast of 3.5 million bpd.

Gasoline stocks held independently in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub dropped 8.2% to 730,000 tonnes in the week to Aug. 5, falling for a fifth straight week, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed. The data showed ARA naphtha inventories declined 16.2% to 275,000 tonnes. Seven gasoline deals, no naphtha trades Oil prices extended gains on Friday, but remained on track for their biggest weekly decline since March as travel restrictions to curb the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant are raising concerns about fuel demand.