Gasoline margin eases as Fujairah stocks swell

Asia’s gasoline refining profit margin declined on Wednesday as Fujairah inventories swelled, although sentiment remained positive amid lower shipments from China and robust demand from Indonesia, traders said.

The crack slipped to $11.94 a barrel over Brent crude, compared with $13.16 a barrel a day earlier.

The naphtha crack, on the other hand, rose by $3.60 to $119.05 a tonne in anticipation of lower arbitrage supplies from the West this month.

“Overall arbitrage flows should remain in the 1 million-1.5 million tonnes range, assuming that re-exports of Russian naphtha through Fujairah, Singapore/Malaysia continue, and increase, with the EU sanction now in force,” consultancy FGE said in a note.

Asia typically gets 2 million tonnes of naphtha per month.

INVENTORIES

Light distillates stocks at the Fujairah commercial hub rose 1.049 million barrels to 8.233 million barrels in the week ended Feb. 20, S&P Global Commodity Insights data showed.
Source: Reuters