NEW DELHI: Asia’s gasoline refining profit margin jumped on Wednesday after US inventories dropped and crude oil prices weakened on recession fears.

The crack rose to $9.86 a barrel from $6.77 a barrel on Monday. Singapore markets were closed on Tuesday on account of a public holiday.

US gasoline inventories fell by about 600,000 barrels last week, market sources said, in line with analysts’ estimates in a Reuters poll.

Stocks of light distillates at the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone (FOIZ) rose by 26,000 barrels to the highest level since March 15 at 7.652 million barrels in the week to August 8, S&P Global Commodity Insights data showed.

The naphtha crack dropped to a discount of $11.55 a tonne from a discount of $6.30 a day earlier, and the market structure narrowed in backwardation. The front-month second-half September price was same as that of the following month on Wednesday.

Iraq pumped 4.584 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil in July, up by 69,000 bpd from June, data from state-owned marketer SOMO seen by Reuters showed.

Saudi Aramco told at least four North Asian buyers that it will supply full contractual volumes of crude in September, sources with knowledge of the matter said.