NEW DELHI: Asia’s light distillates markets firmed on Thursday after Singapore inventories declined by 1.145 million barrels last week, signalling robust demand.

Extreme volatility in crude oil prices also pushed up the refining profit margins. The naphtha margin in the region rose to $116.55 per tonne, up $5 from the last close, while the gasoline crack climbed to $16.34 a barrel from 15.06 on Wednesday.

Singapore’s onshore inventories of light distillates dropped to a more than three-month low of 12.649 million barrels in the week to April 6, data from Enterprise Singapore showed.

US gasoline inventories fell by 2 million barrels in the week to April 1 to 236.8 million barrels, official data showed.

Meanwhile, China’s oil demand could rebound to 14.26 million barrels per day in the second quarter of 2022 after the country’s zero-COVID policy dampened consumption in the first quarter, a senior researcher from China National Petroleum Corp said.

China will strictly control new capacity in its oil refining industry and improve production efficiency of petrochemical products as it strives to reduce excessive capacity and lower emissions in line with its pledge to deal with climate change.