Asia’s gasoline refining profit margin fell below $9 a barrel on Thursday after an unexpected rise in inventories at the commercial hub of the United States.

The crack fell to $8.38 a barrel over Brent crude oil, compared with $9.51 a barrel a day earlier. (GL92-SIN-CRK)

At the Singapore window, there were several bids but none of the offers could match them, resulting in no trades for a second straight day. There were no deals for naphtha as well.

Meanwhile, the naphtha crack rose by about $7 to $37.73 a tonne over Brent crude on Thursday amid weakness in oil benchmarks. (NAF-SIN-CRK)

INVENTORIES

Singapore stocks of light distillates climbed to a three-week high of 15.552 million barrels in the week to May 3, Enterprise Singapore data showed.

U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 1.7 million barrels to 222.9 million barrels, government data showed, compared with forecasts for a 1.2 million-barrel drop. ​

NEWS

– China likely imported record volumes of petrochemical feedstocks naphtha and liquefied petroleum gas in April, preliminary ship-tracking data showed, on rising petrochemical demand as it recovers from the economic downturn triggered by COVID-19 curbs.

– Chinese customs authorities are stepping up inspection checks on cargoes of heavy crude oil after uncovering several Iranian shipments that were mislabelled as diluted bitumen in an effort to bypass import quotas.