SINGAPORE: Asia's naphtha crack ended the week at a five-session low of $52.23 a tonne as excess supplies persisted. The crack value reached a 1-1/2-week high on Wednesday following some interest on spot and term cargoes.

Buyers this week included South Korea's Lotte Chemical, Hanwha Total, Mitsui Chemical and Fuji Oil. Gasoline inventories held independently at the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub rose nearly 7.4% to reach a six-week high of almost 1.33 million tonnes in the week to Thursday, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

This mirrored the higher gasoline stockpiles in the United States last week while Singapore light distillates inventories eased. China's CNOOC sold up to a total of 52,000 tonnes of gasoline for December loading from Dagang and Donglian terminals at a premium of about 35 cents to a discount of about $1 a barrel to Singapore quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.

An aggressive China-led shift to electric vehicles is expected to slash global oil demand growth by 70% by 2030 and will help bring an end to the "oil era", according to research published on Friday by think tank Carbon Tracker. Gasoline has been hit hard by lockdowns this year, as well as the acceleration to ban future use of petrol-powered vehicles.