NEW DELHI: Asia’s gasoline crack edged higher on Friday as crude oil prices dropped after a new COVID-19 variant spooked investors. However, the upside remained limited over concerns of surplus supply. The crack rose to $7.35 a barrel from $7.29 in the last session. Gasoline margins have shed most gains in November after doubling in the last two months.

“While some post-spike cooling is likely taking place, an actual shift in regional supply-demand dynamics is a bigger driving force behind this price correction,” Serena Huang, an analyst at Vortexa consultancy said in a report.

Combined gasoline exports from India, Japan and South Korea are up over 20% (or 170kbd) month-on-month in the first two weeks of November, and on track to rise for the third consecutive month, according to assessments by Vortexa.

Meanwhile, the naphtha crack in the region fell to $144.38 per tonne from $149.43 in the previous session, as a slide in crude benchmarks weighed on prices. Gasoline stocks held in independent storage in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage area fell by almost 4% to 837,000 tonnes in the week to Thursday, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

Naphtha inventories declined to 246,000 tonnes from 263,000 tonnes in the prior week.

Pakistan’s petrol retailers called off a nationwide strike late on Thursday after reaching an agreement with the government over an increase in profit margins, according to the country’s energy minister.