Asia's gasoline margin skyrockets on outages, China export halt, traders say

By Mohi Narayan

NEW DELHI, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Asia's gasoline margin rose to a record high on Thursday as various outages at regional refineries and reports that Chinese refiners have halted fuel exports for October tightened the supply outlook, traders said.

The refining profit, or crack, for gasoline rose to $50.53 per barrel over Brent crude.

Chinese refiners have suspended oil product exports for October, four people briefed on the matter said, as Beijing looks to preserve domestic stocks, a move that will further crimp war-constrained fuel markets.

"Brent futures rolled onto next month’s contract yesterday, with an associated drop in crude price. This would have contributed to the widening crack, which also was supported by news of China reducing its product exports, so tightening the Asian market," said Alan Gelder, senior vice president, refining, chemicals and oil markets at consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

The price for benchmark-grade fuel jumped to $150.69 per barrel, the highest level since March this year.

"Inventories are low and there are refinery outages too, pushing up prices," a Singapore-based gasoline trader said.

India's state-run Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) MRPL.NS on Wednesday cancelled three spot export tenders for refined fuels after a fire broke out at a processing unit.

"The export tender is expected to be refloated soon after evaluating the situation," the refiner informed the exchanges on Thursday.

A key South Korean refiner also shut its gasoline-producing unit due to "some issue", market sources said.

Singapore, China, India and South Korea are key gasoline exporters in Asia.

Meanwhile, Singapore's light distillates stocks, including naphtha and gasoline, fell to a five-year low of 10.514 million barrels in the week to September 30, driven by a rise in transport fuel exports, data from Enterprise Singapore showed.

Gasoline imports totalled about 187,000 metric tons (approximately 1.6 million barrels) during the period, while exports climbed to roughly 672,000 tons.

Outbound gasoline volumes were led by Australia at about 189,000 tons, followed by Indonesia at 160,000 tons. Gasoline inflows were led by China at nearly 78,000 tons, followed by South Korea at about 46,000 tons.