NEW DELHI: Asia’s naphtha refining profit plunged to its lowest level since Feb. 1 on Monday, mirroring the downtrend in Northwest Europe cracks, and a slight recovery in crude oil benchmarks also weighed on the cracks.

The naphtha crack slipped to $76.93 a tonne, compared with $87.15 a tonne on Friday.

There were no trades for naphtha at the Singapore window, amid waning demand for April cargoes, market participants said.

“Asian naphtha prices will be governed more by demand than supply, led by China’s reopening,” analysts at consultancy Energy Aspects said in a note.

Petrochemical margins will strengthen as downstream demand recovers during second half this year, although the recovery will remain lower year-on-year by a glut of new cracker capacity that will likely come online in 2023, particularly in China, the consultancy estimated.

The share of African crude oil in India’s total crude imports in February dropped to its lowest level in at least 22 years as refiners took record volume of discounted Russian oil and raised purchases from Middle Eastern producers under annual deals, shipping data obtained from sources show.

Saudi Arabia’s Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical 2380.SE has restarted its refining and downstream units from a planned maintenance, after more than a month-long delay, four industry sources said.

Strikes blocking fuel deliveries from French refineries continued for a sixth day on Monday, after the Senate voted over the weekend to adopt President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular pension reform plan.