NEW DELHI: Asia’s naphtha crack jumped on Tuesday in light holiday trading after a rise in crude oil benchmarks supported prices.
The refining profit margin rose to $156 a tonne, up $5.37 from the last close. Naphtha margins posted a weekly loss of over 6% last week due to a 12% increase in European inventories.
The gasoline crack, however, traded flat over $12 per barrel as market players kept a keen eye on the impact of the Omicron coronavirus variant on global motor fuel demand.
Meanwhile, in a bearish signal to markets, Indonesia’s state-owned energy firm Pertamina will stop selling RON 88 gasoline next year and phase out RON 90 gasoline, in an effort to steer consumers towards cleaner fuels, its chief executive was reported by media as saying.
Analysts estimated that US stockpiles of gasoline were expected to be unchanged last week, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday.
The poll was conducted ahead of reports from the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, due at 2130 GMT on Tuesday, and the EIA, the statistical arm of the US Department of Energy, due at 1530 GMT on Wednesday.
Oil prices extended gains on Tuesday with prices trading near the previous day’s one-month high on hopes that the Omicron variant will have a limited impact on fuel demand.
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