SINGAPORE: Asia’s refining margins and cash premiums for 10 ppm gasoil edged up on Thursday amid a muted trading window, despite stocks in the Singapore hub rising to a two-week high.

Refining margins for 10 ppm gasoil rose to $46.16 a barrel over Dubai crude in Asian trading hours, extending gains to a seventh consecutive session and hitting their highest since mid-July, compared with $44.97 on Wednesday.

Cash differentials for gasoil with 10 ppm sulphur content stood at a premium of $0.96 a barrel to Singapore quotes, up from $0.93 in the previous session.

US distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 766,000 barrels last week, government data showed, compared with analysts’ estimates of a rise by about 400,000 barrels in a Reuters poll.

Singapore stocks of middle distillates rose 400,000 barrels to a two-week high of 7.802 million barrels in the week to Aug. 17, official data showed.

China’s July exports of diesel only edged up from June to 360,000 tonnes, about half the forecast levels and a fraction of 1.39 million tonnes in July 2021, and exports of jet fuel also fell by 27% over a year earlier at 480,000 tonnes, the lowest monthly volume since January 2021.