SINGAPORE: Asia's gasoline crack was at a 1-1/2-week low of $1.52 a barrel on Tuesday on slow demand as rising infections continued to dent personal mobility. Sales of gasoline in India rose 4.9% in November from a year earlier to 2.4 million tonnes, or growth of about 8% from October, official data showed. But industry sources said improved domestic demand in India or China would be offset by weak demand from importing countries.

China, for instance, has the capability of meeting domestic demand and still have abundant cargoes for the export market due to its growing refining capacities, they added. In Laos, China-invested Lao Petroleum & Chemical Co. Ltd (Laopec) launched first phase of an oil refinery in the country's capital, the first of its kind for the landlocked southeast Asian nation, China's state news agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday.

In the United States, gasoline demand was down 6.8%, or 624,000 bpd, from a year earlier at 8.545 million bpd. Asia's naphtha supplies remained abundant. Total naphtha flows to Asia for November were estimated at a four-month high of around 6 million tonnes, sharply higher versus October's volumes of about 4.7 million tonnes, data from Refinitiv Oil Research showed.