Asia's gasoline hits new low on rising supplies

Asia's gasoline crack hit a new low on rising supplies for a second straight day on Thursday, as supplies increased while demand continued to fall due to lockdowns seeking to curb the coronavirus from spreading.

The gasoline crack discount rose to $12.51 a barrel to Brent crude from $12.38 in the previous session. Demand has been falling much faster than supply despite global production cuts, industry sources said.

Singapore's onshore light distillates stocks, which comprise mostly gasoline and blending components for the fuel, edged up 2.3%, or 323,000 barrels, in the week to Wednesday to a two-week high of 14.42 million barrels, data from Enterprise Singapore showed.

US gasoline stocks were also up, surging by 10.5 million barrels, Energy Information Administration data showed. Tanks held independently in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp hub may have been fully committed with likely no spare capacity, said Dutch consultants Insights Global.

India's Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd sold 25,000 tonnes of 92-octane gasoline for April 22-24 loading from New Mangalore at a discount of about $4 a barrel to Singapore quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.

Asia's naphtha crack also fell and persisted near a 12-year low. The crack value was down by almost 3% to a discount of $64.33 a tonne to Brent crude. Although crackers are mostly running at full or high rates, there were simply too much supply flowing to Asia from the West including Europe and the United States, sources said.

Royal Dutch Shell said on Wednesday it would start large-scale maintenance of its Pernis refinery in the Netherlands in mid-April, more than two weeks earlier than previously planned.