Asian gasoline margin plummets to over six-month lows

By Mohi Narayan

NEW DELHI, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Asian gasoline margins more than halved from the previous session in tandem with global cracks on Friday after China issued a surprise fuel export quota and as inventories at major trade hubs rose, traders and analysts said.

The refining profit, or crack, for gasoline shrank to about $11 per barrel over Brent crude, the lowest level since March, from a record peak of $50.53 on October 1.

Northwest European gasoline refining margins fell over $3 on Thursday, hovering near their lowest level since March as well.

Gasoline crack spreads usually shrink in the northern hemisphere's winter, when fuel demand falls. But this time, a tight supply outlook, caused by a war in the Middle East, Russia's export ban, and several unplanned regional refinery outages, coincided with low stockpiles at key trading hubs. Together, these drove margins to a record high.

However, easing supply concerns, China, one of the top exporters in the region, this week issued a rare fourth batch of fuel export quotas for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel — one that makes the 2026 total allowance 6% higher than last year.

"The implied monthly exports for the remaining of the year in order to fully utilise the quota is roughly 6 million tons for November and December, which is significantly more exports than the last two months," June Goh, senior oil analyst at Sparta Commodities, said in a note.

Meanwhile, light distillate inventories at the Singapore trading hub climbed to a two-week high of 11.304 million barrels in the week to October 28, government data showed.

Singapore's gasoline imports more than doubled to 314,000 tons (about 2.7 million barrels) during the period, while exports tanked about 40% week on week to about 433,000 tons.

However, the stockpiles remained well below about 13 million barrel recorded in the last week of October 2025. O/SING1