NEW DELHI: Asia’s refining margin for gasoline fell below $17 a barrel on Wednesday for the first time this week, although sentiment remained positive amid robust demand.

The crack slipped to $16.33 per barrel over Brent crude, compared with $17.03 a day earlier.

In rare trade at the Singapore window, energy trader PTT sold 50,000 barrels of octane-97 gasoline for May 1-5 loading. Trafigura and Unipec snapped up a cargo each of the octane-95 grade of motor fuel.

Meanwhile, the naphtha crack continued to decline amid a rise in demand for a cheaper alternative feedstock liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

The crack gave up 75 cents at $52.98 a tonne over Brent crude on Wednesday.

Light distillates stocks at the Fujairah commercial hub plunged by 1.6 million barrels to 6.075 million barrels in the week to April 3, S&P Global Commodity Insights data showed.

Finnish biofuel producer Neste plans to start commercial production at its renewable fuels expansion project in Singapore in the coming weeks after trial runs, a senior company executive said on Wednesday.

Russia has started to make ship-to-ship (STS) transfers of diesel near African ports as it seeks transatlantic sales, according to traders and Refinitiv Eikon data.