NEW DELHI: Asia’s gasoline crack inched higher on Monday, as tight global supply continued to cause volatility in crude oil benchmarks while robust consumption in key economies also lifted margins.

The refining profit margin for gasoline rose to $36.70 a barrel, up from $35.40 on Friday. In physical markets, energy trader Vitol purchased two cargoes of total volume 100,000 barrels of the higher 95-octane grade of the motor fuel. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s state-owned refiner Ceypetco floated two tenders to import a total of 600,000 barrels of gasoline for delivery in July, a company document showed, amid a severe fuel shortage in the crisis-hit nation.

The naphtha crack traded at a discount of $23.45 a tonne, compared with $14.13 a tonne in the previous session, and the inter-month spread between the first-half of August and the first-half of September flipped into backwardation structure after a month to $6.

The Group of Seven rich democracies will commit on Tuesday to a new package of coordinated actions meant to raise pressure on Russia over its war in Ukraine, and will finalize plans for a price cap on Russian oil, a senior US official said on Monday.