Asia's naphtha cracks recovered marginally to a two-session high of $24.98 a tonne on Tuesday but the gasoline crack fell 14 percent from an almost three-month high to a two-session low of $6.79 a barrel. The current gasoline crack level was still much higher, however, than the $2.67 a barrel seen on August 1, because upcoming maintenance was expected to hurt supplies.
Demand was seen from Pakistan, which is phasing out 87-octane grade in vehicles this year. Pakistan State Oil (PSO) is seeking a total of 16 cargoes of gasoline in either 92-octane, 95-octane or 97-octane grades through a tender. Not all the cargoes will be of 50,000 tonnes each as seen in most of PSO's previous tenders. Sri Lanka was seeking a small parcel of 85,000 barrels of gasoline for September 25-26 arrival. US gasoline stockpiles were forecast to have decreased 1.6 million barrels in the week to August 26, a preliminary Reuters poll showed.