NEW DELHI: Asia’s gasoline refining margin dropped to its lowest in nearly a month on Wednesday as US stocks climbed, even as it still traded strong above $14 a barrel.

The crack fell by $2.64 to $14.78 a barrel over Brent crude, the lowest since March 16.

In physical markets, Aramco bought 100,000 barrels of benchmark grade of gasoline. The energy trader had 350,000 barrels of the grade earlier this week, market participants said.

Naphtha markets remained subdued and the crack traded steady at $53.35 a tonne over Brent crude in a backwardated market.

Light distillates stocks at the commercial hub of Fujairah surged by 1.085 million barrels to a two-week high of 7.170 million barrels in the week to April 10, S&P Global Commodity Insights data showed.

US gasoline inventories rose by about 450,000 barrels, market sources told Reuters, against analysts’ estimates of a fall by about 1.6 million barrels.

Benchmark Northwest European diesel refining margins dropped to $17.70 a barrel on Wednesday, their lowest since Feb 25, 2022, a day after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, data showed.