SINGAPORE: Asia’s gasoline cracks rose for a fourth consecutive session on Wednesday, buoyed by expectations of demand recovery in the coming months as Covid-19 vaccinations help ease mobility restrictions.

Availability of abundant supplies in the region, however, continues to weigh on market sentiments, trade sources said.

Refining margins, also known as cracks, for gasoline climbed to $5.90 per barrel on Wednesday, the strongest level since June 14. They were at $5.41 per barrel on Tuesday.

Asia’s naphtha crack also rose to $96.63 per tonne, up from $89.08 per tonne a day earlier.

Light-distillate inventories in the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone fell 23.7% to 5.4 million barrels in the week to June 21, data via S&P Global Platts showed.

Weekly stocks in Fujairah have averaged 6.5 million barrels so far this year, and this week’s inventories were about 34% lower compared with the same period a year earlier, Reuters calculations showed.

US gasoline inventories rose by 960,000 barrels in the week to June 18, according to two market sources, citing American Petroleum Institute (API) figures.

Oil rose above $75 a barrel on Wednesday, reaching its highest since late 2018, after an industry report on US crude inventories reinforced views of a tightening market as travel picks up in Europe and North America.

Indian refiners’ crude throughput slipped to its lowest level in seven months in May as a raging second wave of novel coronavirus drove a slump in domestic fuel demand and crude imports, government data showed on Tuesday.