SINGAPORE: Asian refining margins for jet fuel rose on Wednesday, despite firmer raw material crude prices, as airlines across the globe continue to add capacity to their schedules for coming months with more international flights returning to the skies.

Refining margins, also known as cracks, for jet fuel climbed to $31.80 per barrel over Dubai crude during Asian trading hours, up from $31.17 per barrel a day earlier.

Cracks for the aviation fuel in Singapore have surged about 20% in the last month, Refinitiv data showed.

“Internationally, 12 regions of 17 have seen capacity increase (this week), with the strongest growth in South East Asia, where carriers have increased capacity by 4.3% on last week, adding 44,000 seats,” aviation data firm OAG said in a statement.

Global airline capacity rose 0.6% in the week to Monday to 85.7 million seats, 22% lower compared with the corresponding week in pre-pandemic 2019, OAG data showed.

Cash premiums for jet fuel were at $2.10 a barrel to Singapore quotes on Wednesday, compared with $2.28 a barrel on Tuesday.

Middle-distillate inventories in the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone dropped 1.2% to a six-week low of 1.2 million barrels in the week ended April 18, data via S&P Global Commodity Insights showed.

Weekly stocks in Fujairah have averaged 1.8 million barrels so far this year, compared with 3.5 million barrels in 2021, Reuters calculations showed.